#he protects innocent mages and circle!bethany to the end

[emerald-amidst-gold]

10, 16, and 24 for the DA OC ask? :)

*waves excitedly* Hello, hello! :D Welcome to my curiosity shop, but instead of selling curiosities; I supply them! >:D

Thank you so much! Let's ramble! >:3

10. Do your protagonists share the same opinions on the Chantry?

For the most part, yes. Fane is simply the more volatile of the three. He just...does not do good with religion or faith or divinity in any capacity. His kin suffered under the hands of beings who believed themselves gods, and he doesn't want see the same thing happen again. He's also very, very sensitive about Tranquility, the whole Chantry's habit of turning their gazes away while still spouting that, 'We're here. We'll protect you. The Maker will see us through this.', and the self-righteousness, the corruption, the double standard. He also doesn't like the whole act of racial profiling, how the Chantry makes one faction greater or lesser than the other and practically signals them out every time something goes wrong on their end. Fane may refer to most by their race (elf, qunari, dwarf, human, creatures), but that's only because he's laying the base; he's seeing the natural aspect. He never means it as an insult or a slur. Sadly, his tone can come across that way, but it's something he does work on. People are people. No more, no less.

Fane values freedom of thought, of a world where people can think and depend on themselves rather than run to a priest or cleric for certainty. He wants people to believe in themselves. That's all. He knows what it means to be met with silence, to cry and cry and cry for mercy and receive nothing from those that are said to answer with swiftness and benevolence. He doesn't want that to continue. The world is weeping from that kind of attitude, and Fane will do anything to see those tears dry up.

And well, he's also very bitter on the military side of things, too. Templars that get within even a five mile radius of Mhairi or Solas get a claw to the face, especially if they manage to silence or smite them. Fane sees nothing but ruin with the Chantry in place. Rylen and Elise see its importance, its relevance in some capacity, but even they can agree it needs to either change or just go.

Rylen would probably be more close to Fane's reaction though. The Chantry fucked Rylen royally before and after his mother died, and now they continue to play innocent, like everything was his fault? Yeah, no.

Elise is devout. She believes in the Maker, looks up to Andraste and follows her guiding principle to some length, but Anders' predicament before Awakening and after, and the Circle Tower during the Blight had her shaken, had her eyes opening. In those moments, she didn't see magic as the villain, the cause. All she saw was the Chantry, hands bloody, but a smile on their faces and a brand waiting along the sidelines.

'It's to protect you, and those from you. Magic must serve man, and never rule over him.' Elise used to find comfort in those words, believing it was a well thought out plan to ensure everyone was on the same page. Now, she wonders who truly rules over who. It most certainly isn't magic or mages. And motherly smiles of clerics and vacant eyes of those she once knew for their passion, their fears, their hopes and dreams, don't feel like safety anymore.

16. Would your protagonists have the same Hogwarts house?

I'm not too versed in Harry Potter-esque stuff, but I know the houses! And I think I can safely say that, no, they wouldn't have the same house. XD

Fane would probably be Slytherin or Ravenclaw. He's ALWAYS two! I can never just go with one for him! XD

Elise would be Ravenclaw. Without a doubt. She's curiosity and learning incarnate. More than Fane, honestly. PFFT!

Rylen probably Gyrffindor, if I had to choose one for him!

Me: You're a wizard, Fane! >:3

Fane: ...I'm a dragon.

24. How do each of your protagonists handle loss?

Elise:

This girl becomes a mess. Not joking. She's lost so much in such a short amount of time. Her family, who she can't even remember, Jowan, Alistair, Anders. The list goes on and on. Loss to Elise doesn't just mean in death. It could mean someone parting ways with her, whether through an argument or just cruel, cruel fate and the flow of the world. She has a hard time letting go, and even ten years later she still thinks about Jowan and how she wished she could have helped him more, done right by him. And it takes a while, but Nathaniel helps her learn how to let go, to restart and look forward, not back.

Rylen:

...Heh. Rylen also has lost a lot in a short period of time. His losses were like a domino effect, too. Malcolm, then Carver, then Bethany, then Leandra. Boom, boom, boom, boom. Each lost, each one given a silent burial. Rylen never had time to grieve properly, so he bottles all of it, holds it tight and close. He's actually amazed he's been able to keep the cork on his heart for so long, but he knows eventually it'll burst; all the pain and sorrow finally getting a chance to scream as he wants to. Until then, he smiles, he jokes, and he crumbles in silence. Fenris and Sebastian, especially Sebastian, help coax Rylen into caving eventually, but the man's stubborn and prone to holding up a front.

Fane:

Like Rylen, Fane bottles his emotions. He encourages others to let their emotions out because he understands from a practical standpoint that it's detrimental, but it's harder to make himself let go. When his mother died, Fane went mute for several months; no one could get him to speak. He had receded into himself, only acknowledging others with a sidelong glance and a contempt twitch of his mouth. He wouldn't pick up a book of poetry, he wouldn't look at Mhairi half the time because of her eyes and hair, and he wouldn't go near the halla pen or the tree she would guide him to when a bout of rage took him at a young age.

Fane had reconnected to his nature without knowing after her death. He chose silence and vacant observation to cope. But, all it did was sow the seed of resentment and disassociation. Eventually, Fane began to speak again and look at his sister and run his fingers along a stanza of measured words and reach a hand out to a halla, even knowing it would spook, but his mother's absence lingers like the ghostly eyes of his kin and all he wishes is for her to appear one day, maybe just in the Fade, and tell him, 'It'll be all right, da'len. I love you. I will always love you, no matter what. You are my da'isenatha (little dragon)'. She didn't know, of course, but when Fane hears that term in her voice, he breaks and he weeps until he's numb.

...I made myself cry agiaaaaain! *wails*

[magneticmage]

Quiz Meme; OC-style

I was tagged by @rozhevisny to take this quiz.

I also ended up doing a number of my OCs. They are under the cut for length.

I am tagging @awellboiledicicle @mikkeneko @changeling-fae @higheverweave @yusukesmomjeans @dalishious and @draxen1123 but don't feel pressured to do so if you don't wanna! It's all for fun.

(Inquisitors)

Paeriel Lavellan="You're choking on how much you have to try". Accurate by the time of Inquisition (specifically around Skyhold) as Paeriel very much embodies the virtue of suledin. She can handle the amount she's dealt with but it is still a burden and she worries about how it will affect others if she slips and drops under the weight. She doesn't want more harm to come to innocents and those who are already struggling under their own burdens (mages, dwarves, elves, even the templars to some degree), and yet it is a fight that continues on and on seeming without end. Just as Solas walks his path to break the systems oppressing people, she tries to work within those same systems to better chances for those who need it.

Armashok Adaar="You were meant to". Accurate prior to his joining the Inquisition. He spent so much of his life struggling to find his place as everyone told him what to be; silent, obediant, a weapon to be protected against. He chafed and struggled to find comfort in it and yet he ultimately realized that he was his own person. No one could tell him who and what he was or was meant to be, not even his wife. So he chose for himself; To be Armashok Adaar.

Ransley Trevelyn="This isn't enough for you" Also accurate for pre-Inquisition Ransley, as he balked against his family expectations. They wanted him to marry a nice noblewoman of status and wealth. He courted them but couldn't quite bite the bullet as something about them just lacked....something. Even when he met his lover, he struggled against the fact that they had to be discreet for her reputation as a Knight-Divine. His family demanded he become a Templar, he decided the Seekers would be a better use of his talents. Always when he was told something, his innate ambition would push him for more and better things. While he can give up things as needed, he dislikes it. That last part is something he struggles with-and notably fails during Trespasser-post-Inquisition. This is a trait that Josephine can understand, though like their lover Cassandra, she tempers it in herself and him with patience.

Naranka Cadash="Because you have made mistakes you cannot swallow" Pfft. Yeah, this is very much her. She seeks redemption just as badly as Paeriel does for Solas, just as badly as Blackwell-her love interest-does.

(Inner Circle)

Kara Adaar="Because you cannot hold freedom". Very true. She's seen what freedom has cost her parents to give her a better life and plans to make the most of hers. That desire to enjoy life is shared with Sera. The desire to understand the world through the lens of ensuring that freedom for others is something she shares with Dagna.

Emilyse Trevelyan="You swallow pain and fold around it" Yikes. This is accurate to her time in the Circle, however. She spent much of her time trying to be a "good" mage, despite a number of abuses by the Templars and the Chantry. It was only when her brother visited her during his training as a recruit that some of those abuses came to light and she was brought to the Circle in Ostwick, closer to home and with the newly added bribes to ensure her safety, she did much better. However, this newfound life did not for too long as the Rebellion broke out and she was left adrift for a time before making her way with some other refugees to the Conclave at Haven. She was nervous about so many Templars, but eventually found solace and peace with Cullen as they each began to heal over their own traumas of their respective sides, and together as they began a family shortly after Trespasser.

Samrel Lavellan="because you cannot hold freedom" Interesting. He's actually one of my simplest OCs; a simple life with his clan and husband, First to the Keeper and cousin to Paeriel, is all he wants. Unlike some of my other Dalish OCs, he hasn't faced quite the same level of hardship and loss, and though he does mourn the loss of his clan, he seeks to rebuild it alongside his husband and the few survivors that managed to escape the humans' blades. So perhaps that defiance of the losses inflicted harkens back to the Dale's and the elves' refusal to submit to the Alienages, by simply standing up and saying "No, you cannot silence us" is enough? That could be a type of freedom and there is power in that refusal. Thoughts to consider more later.

Pyrmar Cadash="This isn't enough for you". Oh that's interesting. Pyrmar is one of those characters that seems super simple (ex-surfacer Carta bruiser with a notable penchant for leadership as a Champion) and, for the most part, he is. He likes drink and fun as much as any other mercenary like the Chargers. But, like Dorian, he sometimes feels inadequate in some way. As if he is meant for more; to be and do more. Most notably for basic respect and care, something his upbringing in the cutthroat nature of the Carta was missing. Dorian shows him that he is capable of love and being loved and The Iron Bull gives him the respect and belonging he lacked previously. While he can still fall orey to his baser nature at times, his heart as grown much over the years and so it becomes less common to "want more" as he used to.

(Last Court)

Aurore de Serault="Because you have made mistakes you can't swallow" Ooo. She does carry some lingering guilt and grief over her late husband's death at the hands of the Game. She struggles with the Orlesian court at times, and much prefers solitude and peaceful quiet to gossipy ballrooms and noble Lords and ladies demanding a dance, a bonding point for her and her love interests of The Silent Huntsman and the Elegant Abbess. However, it's not that she's unskilled in the Game; in fact, she's quite good at it. She simply prefers simplicity to more complex machinations. All that said, she does regret the ferocity with which she holds grudges; she had gone on to murder the entire families of those individuals responsible for her husband's death.

Marcel de Serault="You swallow pain and fold around it". Hmmm. Not sure of this one. Marcel divorced his wife to pursue a cloistered and scholarly life in pursuit of knowledge (he was once a Chevalier). Eventually he began to crave the adventure of the Game again, which is how he fell for The Wayward Bard and the Dashing Outlaw. Again, not too sure but it's interesting. Perhaps he simply internalized his losses and pain?

(Hawkes)

Knight-Commander Jasper Hawke of Kirkwall="because you've made mistakes you can't swallow" Oh cool! Jasper watches his younger siblings-three of his fellow quadrupled and Carver- go off into the Deep Roads expedition. He made the decision to stay behind to protect Bethany and their mother in case things went south. Despite assurances from his departing siblings, things did go south. After being pissed at Batrand, he sighed and went to work for the Templars. Shortly thereafter, despite his best efforts, Bethany was caught by Templars and taken to the Circle. Jasper did what he could to protect and shield his sister from the worst abuses of the Templars under Meredith's command, no matter the personal costs and enmity it earned him from his siblings and companions. It even ended his relationship with Anders around the beginning of Act 2. After Meredith was defeated, he worked with Cullen to try and reform the Templars and rebuild Kirkwall post-Chantry boom. His efforts were strained once red lyrics began to show up and corrupt his fellow templars. Despite narrowly avoiding being swept into the group while infiltrating it to gather intel, he succeeded in driving them out. When Cullen left for the Inquisition, he stepped up to continue reforming the Templars for protecting the mages. While he originally balked at the pro-mage decisions of the Inquisition, he ultimately agreed that the Chantry had abused all of its charges-mages and templars both. He began to reshape the Templars under his command to fit in line with the changing world; a choice to take lyrium, and a recovery and rehabilitation plan set in stone for all members who wished to leave, new rules and regulations in place to protect the rights and dignity of both mages and Templars, slowly making them a secular force beyond the Chantry but under the control of Vivenne's newly reformed Circle of Magi perhaps. He does what he believes to be right and for the best of his family, even if they dislike his decisions. A trait he no doubt picked up from his mother.

Lord Gray Hawke of House Amell="You swallow pain and fold around it" This is fitting for Lord Amell. While Jasper and Violet always held loft goals to pursue and Skye simply wanted to go and see the world for all it was, Gray preferred to remain at home and tend to their family. He is the one most connected to the Amell legacy rather than the Hawke self-made determination. That's not to say it isn't there; he's more than willing to help others and make something of himself, but it comes back to wanting to appease and help his family in whatever ways he could. He pines for Anders for a great deal of time, but doesn't make a move due to either Jasper dating the mage or simply not wanting to be a rebound for his brother. In the end, however, Anders surprises him (perhaps nudged on by Skye and Violet) by initiating a kiss and the two quickly develop into a stable relationship. He is even willing to leave all he'd built to go on the run with Anders and further aid him in his cause. Gray is just a cutie who wants a simple meal and a nice husband. If he gets to watch Anders shoot lightning at fools, well, who is he to laugh?

Viscountess Skye Hawke="Because you cannot hold freedom". Accurate. Skye loves her freedom. While she is certainly ambitious, it often comes down to more power means more freedom. She rules as Viscountess of Kirkwall for a time until abdicating in favor of Varric so she can pursue Tallis across the seas, but also to simply go back to adventuring and exploring. While she does not care for the Qun and its Qunari, she cares about people and her family most of all. It is one of the few tethers she did not choose but it is the one she keeps above all others. After all, even the Sky must touch the earth at some point just as a Hawk must return to its nest to rest and tend its young.

Champion Violet Hawke of Kirkwall="Because you have made mistakes you cannot swallow". Fitting given that Violet is both a blood-mage (also a spirit-healer and force-mage) and extremely pro-mage freedom, and her choices often led her to conflict with Jasper due to their views and lives. She has only ever wanted to be free to live her life as she chooses, with is how she fell for Isabela. She fell for Fenris because she's a bleeding heart who wants to help everyone as much as she can. Kirkwall left its mark on her and she's struggling to do better than what she views as a failure due to her diplomatic nature in the name of mage freedom by the time the Inquisition comes around. While just as driven by the cause for equality as Anders, she often privately struggled with her mother's death among the many other revelations and choices of her family, fearing the loss of all she called dear. Luckily Fenris and Isabela returned to her and they made a pact to live well on the seas after everything had settled down and Champion Hawke was no longer needed.

(Awakening)

Senior Warden Dion Caron="This isn't enough for you" Okay. So, Dion joined the Wardens to escape the Templars (p.s. it didn't work) and his adopted sister Victoire-Ainsley was already joining and he had promised to protect her for their parents. He's happily married to Garam and spends much of his time training recruits and fostering camaderie in the ranks of the Wardens. What more could he want? Perhaps it is nothing and the doubt is simply there as is human nature, perhaps he frets about his dwindling time in the world before his Calling, perhaps he does want more. Who can say?

Senior Warden/Warden-Constabke Victoire-Ainsley Caron of Orlais="This isn't enough for you" Pfft. Victoire-Ainsley's ambition to make a name for herself and her family (she came from a long line of Chevaliers) nearly cost her her life and resulted in her father's death. Her mother adopted an orphan boy-Dion-in the hopes it would curb some of her darker tendencies. It partially succeeded. While she did not go as far as she'd once been willing, she still acted ruthlessly and this earned her quite the name in the Game for a time. However, her fall from grace was just as bloody as her rise, and she was only spared by the intervention of the Wardens' Conscription. She lost a great deal and was now forever barred from reclaiming it. She acted out for a time and was surprised when the Wardens allowed-encouraged even-it. However the death of her husband to save them during a nasty skirmish against a powerful broodmother she'd led them against resulted in a mission successful but at a cost she hadn't wanted to pay; only her, Dion, Garam, and I senna made it out alive. Since then, she had been working towards redeeming herself, opening up to the criticism and vulnerability she'd been so afraid of, much like Loghain is when he is sent to Orlais. And so while her pride demands more of her, she focuses instead on what she can provide and tries to bite back the bile this causes. After all, this is for the best and that is enough. Right?

Senior Warden Isenna Andras="You were meant to" Isenna lived first under the Orlesian cruelty in the Alienate and then the Templars' in the Circle. It is no wonder she fights to carve a name for herself in history, to make herself her own, to be what she was never meant to even dream of. She wants to be a hero but struggles against her own inner nature to survive. She is driven by the conflict of selflessness and self-preservation. Perhaps Mhairi's idealism is enough to tip the scales for her.

Senior Warden Garam Kader="Because you have made mistakes you cannot swallow" Accurate. He joined the Wardens after passing off the wrong Carta Boss and then spent years helping Victoire-Ainsley and her brother grow their ambition and then....his unit died beyond the four of them. And all the glamor of the Wardens fell away and he realized just how far some would go and he began to wait for them to step back, hoping they would step back. Victoire-Ainsley and Dion and Isenna did. He did. But the Clarel didn't. He hopes Loughlin will do better as the Warden-Commander of Orlais. He knows he will do better and he knows his husband, Dion, will.

(Wardens)

Warden-Commander Lynera Mahariel of Fereldan="You were meant to" Ouch my heart. Lynera lost Tamlen and never quite recovered. She was forced into a Warden and then into leading the party as the Hero of Fereldan and then into the role of Warden-Commander/Arlessa of Amaranthine and she did it. She took all the pain and hurt and losses over the years, the Taint and its horrors and its strength sapping, the politics and hard decisions; she took it all and she did it. She did what was needed, became what a Grey Warden Commander and hero was meant to be. She can't even say she regrets becoming a Warden anymore as its become so central to her identity now, only mourns the things and people she's lost to get there. I think Sten-excuse me-the Arishok understands this. Perhaps that is why they both hope to never meet on a battlefield unless they are on the same side again.

Warden Isemaya Tabris="You swallow pain and fold around it" Okay that's like SUPER interesting. See, Isemaya learned about the injustices elves face early in life. It cost her her mother's life and very nearly her twin brother's as well, after all. She became a warrior to protect them (her family, her community, her home) and she was good at it. But then she saw a glimpse of a different life with Nelaros, one where she might be happy simply letting someone else deal with all the fighting and clawing and exhaustion. She wanted it, she realized, she wanted it very much. But then she lost him and Shianni was hurt and she was hurt and Vaughn was dead and the humans were so angry. She geared up to protect her people again, to be the brave warrior like her mother before her. And then....Duncan Conscripted her. She was forced from her home, alive and angry and proud, and so she expanded her family to her companions. Then Zevran tried to kill them and they let him live and she watched him like a hawk and saw the same longing for a life, for more in the absence of loss, in him. She helped him heal and learn to live again and he helped her set down her weapons and her anger for a time and then the times became more frequent and they grew closer. She told him she loved him in the brisk Haven air and he gave her a golden earring to match the old and blood-stained wedding band she still wore, and she had found peace. She continued with the Wardens, with helping him take down the Crows, with searching for a cure so they could have more time. She took her pain but instead of weaponizing it like Lynera and others did, she learned to let it go and continue on. She learned to live in spite of, not because of, her pain.

Arcane Advisor Catriona Surana of Fereldan= "Because you have made mistakes you cannot swalllow" Oof. This is definitely Catriona during Origins. Her decisions to betray Jowan, to use blood magic at Ostagar and then to continue to practice and study it despite the stigma it holds, the merging with Compassion to save Cale, to give up her dreams of marriage and freedom and let Alistair marry Anora for the good of Fereldan and again when Leliana went on to become the Left Hand of the Divine and then again as the Divine Victoria...she makes a lot of mistakes and the consequences haunt her for a very long time. While she does manage to find some good in them, or at least simply makes peace with them, they still color how she becomes in 2 and Inquisition and beyond.

Warden Cale Amell=

Teryn Fion Cousland of Gwaren=

Paragon Prince Barran Aeducan=

Warden Paragon Tatha Brosca=

(Origins)

First/Keeper Vireth Mahariel=

"Dark Wolf" Elthorn Tabris=

"Stormcaller" Alaros Surana=

Lord Azul Amell=

Lady "Nightshade" Raven Amell=

Lord Carmine Amell=

Lord Reed Amell=

Lady Marigold Amell=

Captain "Highever Spitfire" Aelynne Cousland=

Princess and Orzammar Commander Valda Aeducan=

(Canon Solo Shepard)

Commander and Spectre Annette Shepard=

(The Sibling Shepards Canon)

Spectre Riley Shepard=

Spectre/XO Roscoe "Ros" Shepard=

Spectre/Commander Joanna "Jo" Shepard=

(Shepard Cousins)

Angelus "Angel" Shepard=

Elliot "El" Shepard=

Jaden "Jay" Shepard=

Alexandra "Alex" Shepard=

Kristopher "Kris" Shepard=

Clover "Clove" Shepard=

(Starship Ryders Canon)

Pathfinder Lucas "Luke" Ryder=

Pathfinder Rebecca "Becca" Ryder=

Pathfinder Shiloh "Shy" Ryder=

Pathfinder Evander "Evan" Ryder=

Pathfinder Asher "Ash" Ryder=

(Baldur's Gate)

Cei Gloomdraft=

Faenerys Elendir=

"Sable Shades" Risaeder Rosandoral=

Saga "Muse" Musehart=

Lyr(e/a/an) Lovemoor=

Rune Mistsea=

Lucine Mistsea=

Roan Roarke=

[aworldofyou]

         She had the trust of the Templars, as ironic as it were, and there was no use it vying to bring an overly attentive eye to herself, not when she had Bethany to protect. The trust had been gained through an equal parts lying and redirecting that lie for their own favor, and that included lying about the known whereabout of Apostates. Those that genuinely weren’t demon addled, that is, and keeping a few secrets of Templar’s who in turn had family who were once members of the Circle. And so because of Marian’s natural aversion to the blood shed of innocent mages that she found herself contacted once again by Ser Thrask. And this time it had been done in search for a few young apostates who had taken advantage of recent chaos to make their own escapes.

         It was just before arriving to the Wounded Coast they had stopped in to investigate an abandoned shack, it wasn’t big by any means. Only a few rooms to compliment the second story of a single room. And she had been uselessly pillaging through the back room, looking through the empty crates moreso for any souvenirs of this particular journey, when she had noticed a misplaced board hidden just beneath a wide flimsy scrap of rug. Marian’s head tilted and she nudged the cloth aside with a steel boot to reveal the cut out of a would be door - hidden to any untrained eye. Marian would have missed it easily were it not for the cut in the wood itself to give the outline of the hidden door. Marian gives one look back, ensuring that Ser Thrask was occupied in his own search before she reaches down to tug the door up in a single heave of her arm. And it is there she froze.

          What she hadn’t expected was three pairs of eyes looking up to her in shock, no - what Marian hadn’t expected was the true imagery of apostates in question. Two were children, a young boy and girl, no older than Bethany and Carver were when they had to flee the second city when whispers had started to spread on just who their family were. And the third - a young woman who could not have been older than Marian herself at the time. 

            No, she had to be an older sister. They were only children, all of them - covered in the wear and tear of their travels, clothes scuffed, and eyes reflecting terror and famished. Most of all - they looked hungry..

          “Hawke!-” The voice boomed from outside and Marian’s head lifts and turns back toward the direction of his call, Ser Thrask’s tone indicated he had been done with his end of the search. “Have you found anything?”

           Marian’s eye turns down to them, and she exhales. Watching as the elder of the three adjusts herself to thrust forward the circle staff in such a protective manner at Marian; daunting in the way she tugged the other two behind her. And it’s then that the Warrior holds up a hand in a sentiment of no harm. Then quickly raises that hand to bring an index up to tap her lips in a gesture for them to remain silent. A short action before she begins to sort through the pack at her belt.

           “Hawke?” Comes the call again, only this time there is a line of concern. And Marian lifts her head back with the pull of a pouch from her small personal inventory.

           “it’s clear! There is nothing in here!” She confirms, stopping any need he had to come and investigate himself. But before he could truly try she throws the coin purse to the eldest and only spares time for her to catch it before Marian pulls the door shut once again. She is sure that Bethany could forgive her for giving up the days savings for the expedition, what was a few silvers and some golds anyhow when it came to the plight of mages. A cause their family was all too familiar with. Marian adjusts the broad sword strapped to her back, the slight move of leather straps at her shoulder - an excuse to ensure the door remained out of sight - and turns on her heel. Coming out into the sunlight to greet Ser Thrask. “We should go to the Wounded Coast, we might be able to track them to a hide out there.”

             Marian trades a look with Fenris, who looked to her with that sour expression he always wore. She ignored pinched brow that told her that he likely knew that she was lying. Then to Varric who only nodded and stepped in beside her - to Aveline who stepped in line with Ser Thrask to speak with him over the details of their journey. And finally, to Bethany herself, who’s expression never left hers - and it’s with meeting her eye that Marian finally speaks with the wrap of her arm along her sister’s shoulder to lead her onward. “C’mon, let’s go. The Wounded Coast is not going to search itself - you know I have been thinking on what Isabela said the other day - why do they call it the Wounded Coast?”

          A Drabble-ish Starter for @fatherly​ just going over details of a certain aspect of our plot with Malcom an Hawke babies.

[abbeyfangirl]

dragon age: all characters (companions)

I’ve been in this fandom for a hot minute now and I want to update my opinions on characters :)

Origins

Alistair: super sweet dude who literally is not the stereotypicalchantryguyfightme. He’s a great example of healthy masculinity and I totally wish he was bi because I have an entire essay on that— also: he’s a poc! His mum was brown. In game he’s got dark features. if you really want a blond/blue-eyes/white guy, make your warden that. or accept that brown people can be noble and moral. or just draw cailan, idk. just because BioWare whitewashes doesn’t mean you should.

Leliana: someone hug my singing girlfriend before I crush her under with my own hugs. Also: nugs. Yes! Shoes. Yes! She likes how I style my hair? YES!! I honestly think she’s super duper and it pisses me off whenever someone’s like: yeah she enjoys killing people and the Game. ok. and michel de chevin willingly participated in genocidal marches through the alienage he grew up in with his elvhen mum. 

Morrigan: dirty swamp witch that i stan and also have a v big crush on. tiddies. Have a son with a GW so we can raise him with our tiddies out in the forest. she’s also white-passing, as her father was chasind and all people we’ve seen that are chasind are black. therefore, she is biracial. therefore, poc can be goths and don’t shy away from giving morrigan a darker skintone. if the devs had of been thinking, she’d have a darker skintone.

Zevran: Actually is the best romance, I think. Loves consent, therefore I will stan him so hard my skull cracks a little. Also: he is a very brown boy and if he’s white in da4 I’m seriously going to throw all canon out the fucking window. genuinely a good person who needs to be told so. 

Wynne: grandma who only likes my friends who go to church. but also super sweet and I’d rest my head on her bosom (in a platonic way omg ZEVRAN)

Sten: angry quiet boi. the bestest boi. I totally would give him a kitten for a gift and bake him cookies. Thicc softie. I think if I had DA:O and i knew how to use mods i would mod the fuck outta him. sorry.

Sha(y)le: who’s gender? idk her. See also: fuck birds and authority. pound ur ass into the ground you feathery meatbag little shits. fuck songbirds.

Dog: such a good boi. thicc. thinks Alistair is a whiny fuck and is Morrigan’s only friend. love him. he’s the cutest companion. bet.

Ohgren: honestly forgot about him bcc he’s such a shitbag. also: he could’ve been a really cool addiction recovery type but NOPE. probably would have a trump shirt in a modern au and would catcall wlw and hit mlm. no thanks.

Awakening

Anders: he acts like rlly straight but he’s so gay I can smell it. also he’s rlly cute and fun and I love him so much.

Justice: MAYBE i’M selF CONSCious OF THE twitchING. is the friend that genuinely doesn’t get dick jokes but is ur 110% ride or die.

Nathaniel Howe: honestly is sort of a white knight/neck beard a little, but it’s kind of charming with his whole velanna m’lady?? grump boi. annoying soul patch that I’d mod out SO FAST—

Sigrun: would have ROMANCED the FUCK out of her. why she even entertains the idea of fucking with ohgren makes me realize most of the writers are dumbfucks.png. peppy little emo. 12/10 would die if she kissed my cheek teasingly.

Ohgren: why. why. why. I’d have brought Shayle over. Maybe Zev? Definitely Dog.

Velanna: she was written to be an annoying feminist and you can tell but I deadass am a kindred spirit with her bcc I too am deadpan annoyed with Thedas’ general population too. love her. Would’ve loved to romance her. She’d totally be one of those who’d get all tsundere and be like “n-no i hate you” *kisses the fuckin soul out of you then blushes so hard she’s now a tomato*

Dragon Age II

Anders: fuck the cops. i don’t care. fuck the cops. (vine reference). also: do i hate him for blowing up the chantry that would eventually annul a huge collection of his people? no. read dalishious’s meta on Anders. v intriguing. didn’t they retcon the fuck out of the reported deaths too? like there was like eight Templars and Elthinia in there. Templars killed more “abominations” in a day than Anders in the game canon—

Aveline: initially thought she was fine and then realized she’s shit to my lil brother and I will fucking clap her ginger ass. See also: whorephobia isn’t a joke so fuck off with treating Isabela badly, you tit.

Bethany: sunshine. Literal sunshine. I feel my freckles grow in her presence and i love it. she’s my little baby sister and I’d slam that ogre so fuckin hard before it touched either twin.

Carver: there has to be a mod where both twins survive. I love them both to bits. My babies. carver is my bitter, angry little brother and I can relate because I too am very angry and would totally clap my own ass. hes so genuine and I don’t get the competition between Beth and Carver. Like, both are fuckin stellar in different ways. In this essay I will—

Fenris: honestly, I don’t get the general hate between him and Anders. Fenris’ main arc should’ve been a recovery arc, not drunken moping and revenge. he deserves better. give him a soft sweater instead of his spikes and let him love himself as much as I love him for MAKERS SAKE. like when you really think about their relationship, it could’ve been an eye-opener for fenris and finally some legit sympathy for anders. but we all know that if they had of teamed up that Meredith would’ve been dead before the end of Act 1 so.

Isabela: whorephobia is not a joke. oversexualizing your only appearing brown woman is so poorly written. how about we appreciate her and her lovely bosoms but also let people tease her about her heart of gold? her innate understanding of freedom? instead of just a wave of dick? please?? can we give her some pants for when she fights? can we accept that i fall for rogues who hate themselves?? fuck. also whomever draws her x femHawke x Merrill literally is after my own heart.

Merrill: my fucking babygirl MARRY ME. Fenris could’ve been her older brother type, but NO. she and Isabela should’ve been canonical gfs instead of Isabela/Fenris (no shaming the pairing tho!!). I love how she’s written as neurodivergent. V nice. Sometimes I just look her up and cry because she’s fucking everything. Also: she’s in the Dalish origin and she’s far from being white. Why did they make the most innocent/naïve character really white? hmmmm.

Sebastian: whew that boy. Would totally be that annoying Mormon at your door but you still let him in bcc he’s super sweet. Also: huge ass bible thumper and should get his head slap because you said the maker loved all his children why do you defend a complicit old hag you annoying attractive fuck—

Varric: totally is a bard and the devs couldn’t handle the idea of him being one bcc it might make him look less straight. is the only grey morality person I don’t want to fucking bash in with a fry pan. he sees people and I like that, but you totally know he’s siding with mages every time bcc him and Anders are like besties. I’m sorry. I don’t make the rules. “Professional Younger Brother”.

Tallis: I know nothing about her but she seems okay. I think she was an escaped slave and honestly? Fucking props. Spy on a shitting organization, idk what you’re doing, but your VA was that cool lesbian from SPN so I think ur okay?

Inquisition

Blackwall: Redemption Arc 101. Love him to bits. Sad dad bunwall. good man. actually atoned for his sins by actively becoming a good person. his initial design is 80% hotter im so sorry but so not.

Cassandra: was way browner in the last game. would romance the fuck outta her. I love me a butch lady who melts at my dorky recitation of poetry. BioWare is a coward. also is the worst choice for divine. but not a bad person. could use some more guidance or get her ass whipped by a dalish elf about religion or a circle mage kid whos like “yeah bud i didn’t ask for the templars to whip my ass everyday for existing.”

The Iron Bull: I think the Qunari/Vashoth were a little based off black people (the whole anti blackness thing where ppl are scared of them bcc of whatever reason) and it pisses me off that he had a weird ass dubcon thing with Dorian in banter. It doesn’t make sense— he’s an A+++ dom and would not jump straight in role play without at least checking in at first like wtf BioWare.

Cole: his mother was chasind so he’s like not supposed to be that white? or like biracial? albino? idk. love him to bits tho. He’s neurodivergent and I deadass love him. romancing him? idk. I see why ppl think it’s fuckin nasty but also like as a writer I’d age him the fuck up so fast before my inquisitor even THOUGHT about that. like idk. I’m down with him being a sweet little bro character tho. he’s a babe. love him.

Sera: had the worst fucking writer I’ve ever seen and I willingly read the twilight saga twice by a shit ass racist white lady who okay’d pedophilia. like. Fuck you Kristjanson suck your own dick you fuck. had the worst options in regards to speak to her. has a thicc case of internalized racism that literally most of the fandom just loves to use against her. my lesbian neurodivergent queen. Would write a thousand fix it fics for her. Love her to bits. im gay.

Varric: I haven’t played DA2 so i don’t get why everyone wants to romance him but like. a dwarf romance? yes please. Idk he reminds me of my uncle so I only see him as fun uncle material. Deadass should adopt Cole and Merrill and co parent with Blackwall for Sera. dads? fuck yeah. love me some wholesome, present fathers.

Dorian: is a gay stereotype that I love/hate so much. and he’s also just as bad about being a creep bcc he sexualizes qunari men (in banter). I attribute that to shit writing tho. I want to protect him from all the “omg gay best friend!” people. he’d clearly be that tired gay that wouldn’t give a diddly damn about ur het romance. wanna talk about politics? he’s ur guy/gay.

Solas: “me, an intellectual:”. I don’t hate him, but I’m not about him. He comes off as mysterious and suave (which he totally is) but I deadass would not save him from himself because he’s a racist, exclusionist eggshell. idk. not my cup of tea, but I can totally see the appeal. And he’s interesting, I’ll totally say that. “I think the Dalish are garbage but they made you” is not a compliment. it’s so offensive. and such bait for “quirky girls” which I’m no fan of. Would be Achilles and let Patroclus (Lavellan in his case) die before he realized how his pride is literally a waste of time. If he gets a redemption arc I hope Lavellan gets to slap him before getting him to teach all about ancient Arlathan and show that the Evanuris weren’t all total dicknozzles. (Aka I really have a hard time believing that they’d be slavery cult things. especially since they’ve compared elves to indigenous ppl, Jews and the Romani.)

Vivienne: it’s so racist that they’d make a black woman be pro-slavery. That’s such internalized racism. She could’ve been the cool ass “educate yourself first before you speak, fool” ice lady, but NO. the devs could’ve kept the “Templars are a tool that I proudly can mandate” and the “circles are very good education” and we. Could. Have. Romanced. Her. Like. Fuck. Sake. I just wanna give her a hug and say “love yourself omg!!” and not even in a romantic way. Also: she and morrigan should not have been so antagonistic towards each other. I’d expect them to have great respect for each other, as they both moved up in the world through hardwork and very little help. They could learn different magic from each other too and still maintain that rival respect “oh you” mood. Sidenote: probably the cooler option for Divine. if her approval is high enough she’ll love and be loyal to you forever and i can’t see her agenda being bad. she improves the circles exponentially and tells all the antis to suck her pretty painted toes.

Josephine: an actual disney princess. romanced her my first playthrough. I love her so much. she just makes me so happy. And she’s like: “Integrity, Loyalty, peace. That is what it means to be a GREY WARDEN good fucking person.” she’s the person who would let you hold her hand if you got anxious and she’d be that person who shouldered the whole group project with finesse and poise and would probably lie for everyone as to not be mean. i love josie. her and leliana’s relationship is so cute, too. whether it’s romantic or not: women supporting women.

Leliana: if you leave her hardened you must hate her. why. she becomes so against herself. i like how shes feminine and lighthearted because that’s so powerful-- to remain hopeful when the world is hopeless. (its hard to know when to soften her/harden her so i get it but. google it. she deserves to be happy and sweet again.)

Cullen: uwu war criminal with shit ass “redemption arc” that was actually a half-assed (at BEST) recovery arc. Recovery isn’t linear, it isn’t pretty, and even the broken need to be told they are wrong in order to heal right. Like I’m offended by that bullshit. I’ve had to do some mental health recovery in the past and unlearning lots of toxic ideologies— which I’m still unlearning— and it bothers me that he gets an easy pass because he’s hot. It’s one thing if you like Cullen, it’s another thing if you hold him accountable.

[vhenadahls]

and we’re tried and true

Esther and her family aren’t handling the sardines-in-a-can experience of Gamlen’s house well. She runs into Varric at the Hanged Man, and they get themselves into a bit of trouble. Nothing they can’t handle.

Hawke and Varric friendship, 1300 words. Rated T for two fuck words and a bar fight.

I’m still on hiatus, but I wrote a thing!

After a knock-down, drag-out, family-wide fight that leaves Gamlen sulking and Mother in tears, Carver storms out the door, greatsword on his back and every Kirkwall stormcloud in his face. Esther waits precisely five minutes, trying to pretend she knows how to handle this sort of thing, before following his example. 

She leaves her staff propped in the corner, a subtle, modified repulsion glyph woven around it to prevent anyone noticing or trying to take it. Including Gamlen. The staff’s not a necessary thing, she’s just far more comfortable with it on her back than without. But Athenril’s protection of her prize mage isn't there anymore, not when she's out finding her own work and fucking around Lowtown herself. She's always been able to channel more than enough mana for most things without the staff, though, both of them are - were. A fact that made Esther proud and Bethany shy away from her magic even more. 

Bethany. Bethany would've known how to handle tonight's blowup without shrinking out the door, would know how to talk to Mother in a voice that wasn't shouting. She may not have wanted to understand her magic, but she understood people, more than she thought she did, and Esther wishes she had half that knowledge to bring into Gamlen’s tumble-down Lowtown house. Maybe they wouldn’t feel so much like they’re crashing someone’s party.

She swipes at the tears threatening in her eyes, and looks up to find her feet have walked her to the Hanged Man. The doors are flung open and blurry conversation spills out into the street, along with a circle of reflected candlelight. It smells like cheap ale, too many people, and stale piss, and it's just what she needs. 

A seat’s open at the end of one of the long benches, and she drops into it with a wave at Norah. A mug of ale appears in front of her a moment later, and so does a familiar dwarf. 

“Drinking alone, Shorebird?” Varric asks, tossing a copper to Norah when Esther doesn't. 

“Not anymore, apparently.” She gestures him to the space on the bench across from her. He climbs up, and the way his legs dangle puts a smile on her face she didn't think would appear for a lot longer. All the furniture in his room is dwarf-sized, so she’s used to choking on her knees while she drinks with him. It's a nice change. 

“Damned human-sized furniture,” he mutters under his breath, and her smile turns into a laugh. He grins in such a way that she knows the comment was for her benefit. Another mug of ale appears on the table, and he drains half of it in one gulp. “What's ailing you?”

She sniggers. “Ale-ing. Nice.” Stalling, she takes another sip from her mug and glances around the room. It's all the usual suspects tonight, various Lowtown louts and Fereldan refugees and the occasional guardsman just off their shift. It's loud, and crowded, and the perfect place to forget all her troubles. If he'd let her. 

Varric waits. She'll give him that - he's remarkably patient, when he wants to be. He nurses his ale more sedately, swinging his feet in the too-big chair, and waits for her to come clean. 

“Fuck you, Varric,” she finally says, and drains the last the mug in one swig, banging it down on the rickety table when she's done. “Just family shit. It's not important.”

It’s not often that Varric doesn’t have a ready answer. He just nods slowly, and takes another sip. “Did I ever tell you about the qunari mage Bartrand hoodwinked onto our last expedition?” he asks, his eyes wide and as innocent as he can make them.

Laughter rises from the patrons next to them, wedged in on the bench. “You’re a terrible liar, Varric,” one of them says, raising their mug to him.

“I resent that!” he cries. “I’ll have you know that I am an exquisite liar, but this is definitely one hundred percent true.” He launches into another one of his tales, one that is obviously false (he’s never met a qunari mage, as far as she knows, let alone been on an expedition with one). But his wide-eyed pretense has her and the rest of his audience holding their sides from laughter soon enough.

Norah refills their mugs, and after the story someone produces a Wicked Grace deck. She's got nothing to play with, but Varric spots her, and she cleans their new friends out with an easy smile. Her shoulders start to relax, tension easing. 

“Fucking dog lord!” comes a sudden screech, when the Angel of Death card comes up and Esther lays her hand flat on the table - four knights: ages, dawn, mercy, and sacrifice. Another win. 

The screecher jumps up from the bench, his path a little wobbly from alcohol consumption. “You're cheating!”

“Now, now,” Varric says, helping gather Esther's winnings so none of the audience takes them, “that's no way to be a gracious loser.”

With another screech, the man tries to aim a punch at Varric, but his own inebriation and Varric’s lack of height mean he misses by a mile. Varric ducks even so, sliding out from the bench.

Esther does, too. “Hey!” she shouts. The angry man turns toward her and raises his fist again, but she sidesteps it and drives a mana-enhanced punch into his gut. He slumps over, heaving, and she spins to face his friends trying to disentangle themselves from the bench.

“So, my good men, you’ll find that I can more than hold my own in a fight. And if you don’t want to end up like your friend over here,” she points her foot backward at the man still gasping for breath, “you’re going to let me just walk on out of here with my winnings and we’ll forget all about this. How’s that sound?”

One of the man’s friends looks like he’s considering the offer, but the other winds up for another punch. Esther lets him get it in - he’s so drunk it feels more like a mild shove - and follows with another punch of her own, softer than the last but in the shoulder.

A number of Fereldans from the next table over stand up as the reluctant one advances on her, and she tips an imaginary hat to them in thanks before he grabs at her arm. He’s stronger than his friends, and it’s more of a fight for a few moments. One of the incoming Fereldans throws a wild punch that makes him loosen his grip and she wriggles away from him, heading for the door with Varric on her heels.

She’s laughing before they even make it onto the street. The denizens of late-night Lowtown barely glance up at the intrusion. They walk towards Gamlen’s house, still chuckling. “Cheating at cards so much you start a bar fight, Shorebird. That’s one way to have an interesting evening.”

Pretending to be affronted, Esther flattens a hand on her chest in a horrendous impersonation of Leandra. “Me? Cheating? I am appalled that you could ever think such a thing of me. I would never cheat!” She flutters her other hand through the air like she’s supposed to be holding an ornate fan - this imitation, spot on.

The sound Varric makes is something like a cross between a nug and a pig. “And I’m next in line for the Sunburst Throne. Honestly I’m glad for it, you’re far more interesting than the usual clientele.”

They’re in front of Gamlen’s place now, and Esther leans against the sagging stairway. “That’s not saying much, though.”

Varric tilts his head and a hand toward her, agreeing. “That’s true. Anyway, I’d best get back before the fight’s too rowdy and they kick everyone out, that’s always some fun people-watching. See you later, Shorebird.” He turns and heads back the way they came.

Still leaning on the stairs, Esther taps one foot against the carved-stone ground. It’s a familiar sound, and it helps center her thoughts. “Varric?” she calls. He turns back, a question in the angle of his head.

She takes a deep breath. “Just...thanks. For being there tonight. It helped.”

No response, for a moment, and then he nods. “Anytime, Hawke.”

[daughter-of-the-prophet]

Bethany Hawke (TV Tropes)

All Women Love Shoes: Makes no less than three comments about shoes when prompted.

Angsty Surviving Twin: Downplayed, but Bethany is certainly affected by the loss of Carver. Her first party banter with Varric after they meet him is about how much she misses her twin. She also admits to Areida Hawke how jealous Carver was that the dog chose their older sister instead of him to be his master. It's particularly telling that, seven years after he died, she says that the one thing in her life she truly regrets is that she couldn't stop him from charging that Ogre.

Awesome Mc Coolname: Despite it being a Fan Nickname for Areida Hawke, Bethany is the one that gets called Lady Hawke.

The Baby of the Bunch: Bethany is the youngest of the three Hawke siblings, if only by a few minutes, and the entire family is extremely protective of her, even Carver. She later becomes a little sister to the entire party.

Badass Adorable: Capable of kicking lots of ass, though there is much emphasis placed on her cute demeanor and vulnerability as an apostate.

Badass Bookworm: At the circle, Bethany is held in high regard by both the Templars (by Meredith herself, no less) and her own students as an exemplary mage, despite being a former apostate and the daughter of an apostate.

Badass Teacher/Cool Teacher: Despite being only 23 by Act 2, Bethany still ends up becoming a senior member of the Circle and in charge of teaching apprentices. It's mentioned that they completely adore her.

Beauty, Brains and Brawn: In a trio with Areida and Aveline, Bethany is The Beauty - she has the sweetest disposition and the kindest heart, and several characters (Fenris and Varric among them) remark on how pretty she is.

Beware the Nice Ones: Bethany is quite possibly the nicest, most approachable, least-morally-compromised of Areida's companion. This doesn't mean she's any less capable of destroying you.

Big Sister Instinct:

Invokes this frequently . Do not threaten her when Areida is around.

Also on the receiving end of this. When the Templars come to take Bethany, Areida calmly informs them that they will have to go through her first before Bethany begs her sister to stand down and tells the Templars she will go quietly.

Big Sister Worship: She idolizes her big sister and is constantly supportive of her during her time in the party.

Birds of a Feather: This is a factor in her relationship with Varric, which is one of the healthiest in the franchise. They are the two companions who get along with everyone, they both like helping people, and they are the most content of the entire group to live and let live.

Breast Expansion: For a short time, during Varric's exaggerated prologue sequence you might notice something besides Bethany's magic prowess being enhanced. Afterwards she has the normal female model.

Broken Bird: Downplayed, since she doesn't like to air her grievances, but it becomes more and more apparent that she sees herself as a burden to her family. She feels guilty that Areida goes through so much effort to protect her secret. This is why she surrenders when the Templars come and take her to the Circle at the end of Act 1.

Character Development:

She retains her 'Sunshine' persona and instead grows both more proficient as a mage and also deeper in her faith in the Maker, finding meaning in her own existence.

Either way, she tells Areida that she wouldn't change anything about the events that brought her and her sister to this point, other than stopping Carver's Heroic Sacrifice

Child of Forbidden Love: Like her siblings.

Color-Coded Eyes: Bethany has brown eyes, indicating that she has a warm and down-to-earth personality.

Comes Great Responsibility: Like father, like daughter.

Cool Aunt: She's seen as this by her nephews and niece.

Corrupt the Cutie: Courtesy of Isabela; Isabela delights in trying to remove some of Bethany's innocence, much to Areida's distress.

On learning she is a virgin, Isabela offers to buy her a night at the Blooming Rose. It's unknown whether this ever actually happens.

Isabela apparently sends her a lot of suggestive books to get her through the night while in the circle. 

Country Mouse: She comments that she misses the fields of Lothering, compared to the cramped streets of Kirkwall.

Covert Pervert: As noted above, she's grateful to Isabela for sending her suggestive books.

The Cutie: She has a fair few of the trope's requisites, including being incredibly sweet, kind to everyone, and demonstrably affectionate. She's also subjected to Corrupt the Cutie, as noted above.

Daddy's Girl: Strongly implied after the end of Legacy. Malcolm justifiably spent a lot more time with Bethany than with either Areida or Carver since Bethany is the family's only mage child. This may also explain why Bethany looks up to her older sister so much, since Areida is a whole lot like their father in both looks and personality.

Dead Guy Junior: According to The World of Thedas, Bethany is named after her maternal grandmother, Bethann Amell, who died sometime during the year before the twins were born. Leandra only learned of her mother's death shortly before giving birth.

Deadpan Snarker: Occasionally, though less than most of the rest of the companions.

Some of her banter with Anders in Legacy delves into snark, especially when he tries to scold her for voluntarily joining the Circle.

Dysfunction Junction: Initially, she is the sole exception, with the rest of the party having dark pasts and personalities to match them. She isn't nicknamed "Sunshine" for nothing.

Earn Your Happy Ending: In Act 3, Bethany has spent the past six years locked in the Gallows, but by the end of the story, she's free, her friends are alive, she has reunited with her beloved older sister, and the mages are uniting to fight for their freedom. Even though it doesn't go as smoothly as everyone would have hoped, and there's much hard fighting in store for the mages, her fate could have been much worse and she hopes that good will come out of the impending revolution.

Belated Happy Ending: It goes even further, offscreen, at the end of Trespasser in Inquisition. Varric has become Viscount of Kirkwall, and Areida is back in Kirkwall, helping him run the city; the two most powerful people in Kirkwall both love Bethany dearly, and the captain of the guard is her old friend Aveline. Furthermore, after Leliana is made Divine. She dissolves all the Circles of Magi - meaning that Bethany is now free and, one would imagine, enjoying her rightful place at the Hawke estate with her adored older sister, her sister's love interest, and her nephews and neice. It may take a long time for her to get there, but Bethany does eventually earn a very happy ending.

Everyone's Baby Sister: Older than most examples, but still fits. It comes with being both the youngest companion and the only one (besides Varric) that everyone likes. Being Areida's actual little sister also contributes to the role.

Fantastic Racism: Bethany hates Qunari, though she has more justification than most; she had a friend in the family that Sten murdered. This leads to a horribly ironic moment in the prologue: Her twin brother is killed by an ogre while fleeing Lothering. Ogres are Kossith-based darkspawn. 

The Friend Nobody Likes: Inverted; as noted above, she and Varric are the only ones of Areida's companions that everyone likes.

God Is Good: Her view of the Maker; of the story's three mage companions, she is the most devout Andrastian. Her faith gets stronger throughout the story.

Gravity Master: By Legacy, she has become a Force Mage. 

Hot-Blooded: She has no fear charging into any situation with her magic, even as she tries to hide it.

I Just Want to Be Normal: Her biggest wish is to be normal, as revealed in party banter with Merrill, and she resents all of the hardships brought upon her family in order to keep her safe. The World of Thedas, vol. 2 contains a report, written by someone who met the family in Lothering and was somehow privy to young Bethany's apostate status, which talks about how much the girl clearly would rather not have magic.

Subverted in Legacy. She realizes being "normal" would require an entirely different family. She admits, despite the hardship of being an apostate, she wouldn't have it any other way.

Indifferent Beauty: Multiple characters, as noted above, remark on how attractive Bethany is. She herself seems entirely unconcerned with it, though she clearly appreciates the compliments.

The Ingenue She starts the story and spends the first act as this; she grows into Silk Hiding Steel and a Lady of War.

Leeroy Jenkins: At the end of Act 2, she gathers a cadre of mages to help Orsino fight the Qunari, despite his orders for them to pull back. Her entire group gets slaughtered, but much to Areida's relief, Orsino is able to revive Bethany.

Meaningful Name: "Sunshine" is Varric's nickname for her; Isabela's is "Sweetness." They're both very accurate. 

"Sunshine" may be a particularly Meaningful Name. Varric has a number of lines, in party banter and cutscenes, in which he mentions that part of the reason he prefers being a surface dwarf is because he enjoys being in the sunlight. Unlike the more superficial or sarcastic names he gives most of the other companions, he named Bethany after something he loves, and his interactions with her are some of the warmest he has in any story where he appears.

Nice Girl: It says something that, for all the varying views and tempers of the companions, Bethany gets along with all of them; even Fenris, who otherwise despises mages, likes Bethany. 

Nice, Mean, and In-Between: Among the three Hawke siblings, she's the In Between to Areida's Nice and Carver's Mean.

Platonic Declaration of Love: She gives one to Areida before the final battle at the end of the story.

       "If we don't survive this, sister, I just want you to know that I love you."

Playing with Fire: Bethany definitely qualifies, as she's first seen using fire spells; she has a staff that shoots fire and uses fire spells in cutscenes when she attacks.

Plucky Girl: Bethany refuses to allow her time spent in the Gallows to harden her, and she hopes the mages' rebellion will change how they live among others for the better. 

Put on a Bus: Bethany is forced to join the Circle at the end of Act 1.

The Bus Came Back: She rejoins the party in Legacy, during the battle with the Qunari at the end of Act 2, and during the final battle at the end of the story.

In Inquisition, Bethany is sent away by Areida in order to keep her as far as possible from the mage-Templar conflict.

The Red Mage: Bethany doesn't have the party heals or revives of Anders, or the hell-raising blood magic of Merrill, but has access to a great deal of offensive and defensive magic, plus healing, which Merrill lacks. Properly built, she is one of the most versatile mages in the story, subverting the Master of None stigma associated with them. As an Elemental/Force Mage, this becomes even more apparent.

Red Oni, Blue Oni: Blue to Carver's Red.

The Revolution Will Not Be Vilified: She believes that this should be true of the Mage rebellion, and she stands as an example of a good free mage.

Scarf Of Asskicking: Like the other female mage, Merrill. It's probably there to hide the black seam between the head and body in character models, but that doesn't mean Bethany doesn't look stylish in her vibrant red scarf.

Ship Tease: A very sweet one exists between her and Varric, of all people; their relationship is examined in detail on the Heartwarming page. He sometimes calls her "my lady," "Milady Sunshine," or "my Sunshine," which makes her giggle, and he has a number of party banter lines in which he compliments her beauty. She's also the only party member to whom he is absolutely never snarky. There's a lot of affection in their interactions, and their relationship continues to receive mention in Inquisition - he has some lines which indicate that he writes to her frequently. 

Sibling Rivalry: Party banter includes hints that this was her relationship with Carver.

Sibling Yin-Yang: With her twin, Carver.

Strong Family Resemblance: Facially, at least, she seems to take after her mother a good deal.

Token Good Teammate: One of the few party members that is not one of the many darker shades of grey found throughout the story.

Token Religious Teammate: The most religious party member. She struggles to reconcile her faith in the Maker with her life as an apostate. By the endgame, Bethany has mostly managed to do so.

Tomboy and Girly Girl: Bethany is the girly-girl to Areida's tomboy.

The Unfavorite: Discussed in Legacy. Learning that Malcolm didn't want to pass on his magic shocks Bethany, who was the only one of the three children to inherit his power. She wonders if Malcolm secretly resented her, which Areida is very quick to shut down; the only thing Malcolm resented was that Bethany had to carry a burden the rest of their family couldn't comprehend.

We Help the Helpless: In Inquisition, when Inquisitor Rosabelle Trevelyan asks him about his companions' whereabouts, Varric says that Bethany is helping refugees in the Free Marches.

[spell-struck]

i don't know your ocs' names but i want to give you an excuse to talk about them so hm... do multiples of 3 for the oc ask

Oh boy this is… okay!I’m going to spoil my boy, Elias Hawke. Here we go.

1. What is/are your OC’s nickname(s) and how did it come about? 

The obvious reply is that his nickname is “Hawke”, just out of being well… Hawke. But his family has amassed some other names, like “bumbling idiot” (Amanda), “nug head” (Bethany, on rare occasions), “smart-ass” (Carver)… most of them are with love. Malcolm used to call him Eli. That was a long time ago.

3. How tall is your OC?

He’s a wonderful 6′2 beefy mage, which means plenty of love to go around.

6. What is one word you would use to describe your OC’s appearances?

himbo

9. What does your OC’s bedroom look like?  His/her living area?

Depends! He had to share the space in Gamlen’s place with Leandra, Amanda and Carver, so it was too cramped for anything of substance. Once they move into the Amell estate, he’s got his own room, so it quickly becomes more “lived in”. He’s not a super messy sort of guy, but you’ll quickly find books strewn on his desk that he never bothered to put back, and he doesn’t make his bed. Just can’t see the point!

12. What is your OC’s relationship with his/her father?

Okay, I’m actually really glad I get to answer this one. So before Malcolm passed away, he was pretty much the only one in the family who Elias felt particularly close to. Being a mage, it meant that he was under pretty high security (as was Bethany, but I’ll get into that) and both Amanda and Carver felt a little resentment toward their brother for being the reason they couldn’t live a “normal” life. As a result, he felt very isolated from his non-magic family. Malcolm was fun, kind, and Elias developed similar if not the exact same mannerisms as his father. When he was forced into the “family head” position after his father died, it might be that he tried to behave in a similar fashion because it would put his family more at ease. He remembers his father dearly.

15. What was your OC’s childhood like?

Like I said, Elias was a mage born into a world where magic was feared, and with an apostate father his childhood consisted of constant moving and an ever-present fear of being taken from his family to the Circle. He received a great deal of training from his father on how to use his magic safely, and did his best to stay out of trouble–rather, stay out of trouble with the Templars. There was a time when he and his twin sister Amanda were close, but after his magic manifested, their connection faded. This isn’t to say it was all bad. His family, despite their troubles, was very happy for a time, and his fondest memories were dinner time conversations which usually came with some type of entertainment like a play or a mock sword fight between Amanda and little Carver (but she had to be careful with him).

18. How many times did your OC move as a child?  Which area was his/her favorite?

He wouldn’t be able to give you a solid number. Too many times to count, but he loved the people in Lothering. Especially once the Blight started, everyone was trying so desperately to help one another, it really kept up his faith in others to see those who truly cared doing all they could–him included.

21. Who are your OC’s closest relatives?

Before Kirkwall, it was his father and Bethany. Being mages, it was just natural that they would spend a great deal of time together, with Malcolm teaching his children what they needed to know to protect themselves and manage their magic. Elias was fond of his little sister; he and Bethany got along well, and that could be attributed to their being the primary recipients of Malcolm’s jokes. They were close; when she died on the way out of Lothering, he became a stranger in his family. His mother, Amanda, Carver; they were his family, and he loved them, but they didn’t know him the way he wished they did. He was effectively isolated, and they didn’t even know it.

24. Who are the people your OC dislikes/hates?

He and Isabela just can’t see eye to eye. He’s a do-gooder, if his actions could result in unrelated and innocent people being hurt, he won’t do it. Isabela thinks he’s a goody two-shoes, and he won’t deny it if being honest and kind is being too good. He’s been accused of being easy to rope into help, too, and never for financial gain–another thing Isabela just cannot comprehend.

27. What are some things your OC admires about his/her soulmate?

Fenris has a resolve that Elias himself wishes he could have. He admires the way that Fenris has dedicated himself to righting the wrong done to him, but does try to keep him occupied during those quieter moments so that his drive for justice against Danarius doesn’t consume his every thought. Still, to be able to have that focus is admirable in itself, and it’s something Elias knows Fenris will one day be able to put to other use.

30. Did your OC participate in extracurricular activities, and if so, what were they?

Not sure how to answer this… Elias likes to write poetry. It isn’t very good poetry, mind you.

33. What subjects interested your OC?

He always had a fascination for the branches of magic that applied gravity and its pull; it had more oomph. That’s definitely why he specializes into Force magic.

36. What are your OC’s thoughts/opinions of his/her current profession?

he’s a professional apostate but it’s legal now

39. How does your OC handle anger?

Typically, pretty… well? Kind of. He doesn’t like to make anyone feel like something is their fault; unfortunately, he turns that anger inward, and blames himself for whatever went wrong. Now, if it’s something that another person very deliberately did and had dire consequences, he will try to remove himself from the situation for as long as he can in whatever capacity he can until he can give proper judgement without being clouded by anger.

42. What makes your OC happy?

When the people he loves and cherishes are all in his estate, chatting by the fire, or when they’re playing cards at the Hanged Man. Those moments of pure camaraderie, simple times like those where no lives are at stake and no danger is afoot. 

45. What are some things that annoy your OC?

Uninformed claims and assumptions on his friends or on mages. He strongly disagrees with the Circle’s, and by extension the Chantry’s view on magic, and wants people to make judgements on him and his companions after they’ve gotten solid impressions. It hurts and bothers him to no end when people decide he is a menace for his magic–even if he’s there to help. (I don’t know if it helps that most people don’t know he’s a mage anyway)

48. What are some of your OC’s vices?

If he’s at the Hanged Man and knows that he has no commitments the following day, he will drink himself into the morning in Varric’s room. He will also crash in Varric’s room.

51. What are some of your OC’s morals?

If innocent people will be directly harmed by the action, he will refuse to take it. Templars are not innocent people, though, so they’re on a case-by-case basis.

54. Does your OC think with his/her head or heart?

Absolutely his heart. He’s not stupid, but he leads with his emotional responses more often than not. Except anger; he knows better than to act on his anger. Not like his twin…

57. What are some of your OC’s weaknesses?

He’s very sensitive. I wouldn’t say Elias is bad with criticism, just that he really takes it to heart. He tries so desperately to do right by everyone, but at the end of the day, he just can’t please everyone. 

60. If your OC could change one thing about him/herself, what would it be?

Geez, uhm… it’s difficult, because he isn’t ashamed of his magic, but if it would have made his family’s life easier, he would change being a mage in a heartbeat. He feels responsible for so much of their suffering.

63. How does your OC display love?

Elias uses touch-based affection, so he’s a cuddler. He likes to hug his friends whenever they’re just. Chilling. He likes to lay on them (they usually will let him, too, because they love him.) and just nuzzle into their necks.

66. What is your OC’s favorite food?

He’s fond of sweeter foods, so any sort of sweet dessert type food, really.

69. What is your OC’s favorite kind of weather?

Rainy days! It always smells nice, and he likes to curl up by the fire with the family dog (named Baby by Amanda, shh) and read. 

72. What is your OC’s favorite kind music (and song if there is one)?

Hm. How to answer this… I’ll say he likes listening to Orana play. She’s very good, getting better every day.

75. What is your OC’s favorite scent?

He really liked the perfume his mother started wearing once they got the estate back. He will neither confirm nor deny that he stole some on occasion because he liked the mixed floral smell.

Thanks a bunch for the extensive asks! Ask prompt found here.

[loquaciousquark]

15th August. Saw one whole cloud this morning--watched as it crept right next to the sun, spied me looking up in hope, and dissipated immediately

For as many lackeys as Meredith keeps at her beck and call, I am surely the most ill-suited to the position. Mostly because she despises the sight of me--which most, I feel, would consider a sign of a poor working relationship--and yet here I am, searching out apostates & running messages back and forth like a pet urchin, because my freedom depends entirely upon her sufferance and I am nothing if not craven when it comes to my freedom.

Poor Fenris. Well, he knew my baggage when he signed on. Maker, between the two of us we’re practically a full suite.

I do appreciate his willingness to stand at my shoulder and glower, though. I told him this afternoon that regardless of his history with Anders, should I ever be taken up by the templars, I expected him to put all differences aside to break me out of the Gallows immediately. He laughed, but his eyes were hard when he said he would. Good.

19th August. So steamy after yesterday’s storm Isabela could hardly get all the innuendo out at once

Do you know, journal, when I was a child I used to go out into the field and pretend to be Queen Rowan at the Battle of River Dane, and Carver would be Maric and Bethany would either be Loghain or Queen Rowan’s previously unknown twin sister, Queen Alabaster, who was the same as Queen Rowan only more beautiful, more beloved, and who more often than not kicked both Maric and Rowan to the streets after the battle and ruled Ferelden alone.

I bring this up because this afternoon (which was remarkable in several distinct ways) I managed to not only insult but also physically injure the sovereign king of Ferelden, His Majesty Alistair Theirin, in the presence of his uncle the Bann of Rainesfere Teagan Guerrin.

To be honest, I thought the letter was a joke. Maker knows I get enough of them now--it’s rarer than diamonds to receive a genuine request for aid lately between all the blind offers for my hand and the blinder requests for the sum total of my fortune to be delivered to the docks at midnight in an oiled basket draped with bunting. I thought Bodahn had let it slip through accidentally--and then I walked through the Keep’s doors and saw Meredith arguing with a man in full plate right there in the entry hall, and so preoccupied was I with rolling my eyes straight out of my head that I didn’t realize I recognized his face from all the printed coins Lirene still takes for trade.

Funny. I always thought it would feel different, standing before someone who rules your country--the place you loved, I mean, the place that was home.

He was taller than me, but not by much, with lines around his eyes, and a wider face than the coins suggest. He laughed more often than I should have thought. He knew my name, too, and all evening I have been imagining him and his queen sitting in a blue salon, opening letters with news of my various exploits, marveling at this wonderful refugee who survived the Blight against all odds and yet managed to still steadfastly ruin Ferelden’s reputation all the way across an entire sea.

Anyway. Aveline was infinitely proper-er than I was, of course, which oddly enough I think embarrassed him more than my inability to muster even the minimally appropriate deference due my sovereign lord. Then--just to make sure the Maker was mocking me directly--on the way out I was so busy looking behind me to see if Meredith was watching that I missed Alistair pausing on one of the Keep steps ahead of me, plowed directly into his posterior, knocked both of us off our balance, and clapped our temples so hard together I saw stars.

I will say the last time I saw Aveline so disgusted with me I was drunkenly weeping into her shoulder about the mayfly lifespan of my dog (comparatively speaking). But again, Alistair hardly minded at all, and once we got out of the Keep we managed the four of us to have a wholly reasonable conversation about imported dairy products and the effects of the latest storms on Ferelden’s grain production, which I honestly cared a great deal more about than Meredith anyway. He says the edges of the Wilds are still enough a wasteland they’ve not counted on its stores at all. He didn’t remember any recent news of Lothering itself, but he said a few places have begun to recover and that Lothering might have been one of them, a bit of growing green against all odds. I’d like to see that Chantry rebuilt someday, with the sun turning colors through its glass windows every morning.

My favorite moment came a little later, though, as Teagan was talking about the trouble he’s been having with one of Redcliffe’s apple groves. I looked over his shoulder and saw Fenris on his way back from the Chantry--visiting Sebastian, I think, since it’s the third of the week--so I waved him over and introduced him. He can be so coolly civil when he wants to be, and despite the leer I have yet to successfully suppress as I introduced “my friend,” he gave that crisp Tevinter half-bow to Alistair and nodded to Teagan and slipped right into the conversation about the apples, easy as anything.

Fucking proud of him. Not even enough words for the joy--I’m bursting every time I think of it. Danarius can twist his bloody mincy little words all he likes. No Tevinter slave ever stood so straight and free before a king.

He belonged there. He belonged there, with us. King Alistair honored him and deferred to him more than once as we spoke, and Bann Teagan admired his sword, and Aveline told the story of our trip to Sundermount and the varterral we fought there, and how Fenris tore two of the legs from the thing before Varric & I finished it off. (She knew, I think, how I felt; I kept stumbling over my sentences, preoccupied as I was marveling at Fenris’s wonderful face so near King Alistair’s stubbly one, so to have her slip in as often as she did and cover for my idiocy was dreadfully kind.)

Alistair asked us, in the end, if we’d come back. Serve our country once more, serve the throne. Aveline...didn’t know. And I said

I said

Yes was in my mouth. I could already feel it, could already smell Lothering’s spring fields and the green ivy that grows on the boulders next to the southern lakes and the thick, crisp cut to the air right before it storms, and...

And then I glanced over his shoulder at the way the afternoon sunlight poured down the silks draped through the Chantry square, and I saw the peak of Fenris’s roof over the wall where I first told him I loved him, and I thought of Pelarie’s and Jule’s wedding next week, and the sticky buns Orana’s promised to make for Wicked Grace after and how Sebastian plans to come help her with the glazing, and I--

Well! I couldn’t.

I looked at Fenris, and his eyes softened, just a little, and I said I would be happy to come visit, and I offered my aid should it ever be needed, but that I thought...I thought perhaps my place was here, at least for now.

Alistair’s face changed enough I think he understood my meaning, and he nodded and said to send word should we ever have need of him. He said he knew our road was difficult, but he thought Kirkwall was in the best hands she might be able to get, even if she didn’t know it yet. Generous sentiment, I thought, considering how near I’d been to abandoning her only a scant moment prior, but I appreciated it all the same.

Then Isabela sauntered by on her way to the Blooming Rose and Alistair turned beet-red and all of us learned a great deal more about a brothel in Denerim than I think any of us expected when we woke this morning.

24th August. Rained all morning, heavier storms this afternoon. Da would have called this a gullywasher

I could die a happy doglord if I never had to run another errand for that woman. If I didn’t know how terrified I was of her assistant (and the implications of that assistant), and I didn’t know she knew, and I didn’t know I didn’t know she knew, well--I’d never help her again at all, so there.

That said, my hands are still cold from the last time we went through. Even Aveline winced at Elsa’s “help,” and I can’t remember the last time she was flappable. Regardless, two blood mages are no more and one mage is safely returned to the Circle, and the blood of at least two more innocent lives has poured through my fingers. Poor Evelina. Poor blessed Nyssa. I led her to her death for nothing more than the misfortune of loving the wrong man and trusting the wrong woman to protect her.

Merrill said Nyssa always kept to herself in the alienage. She’s going to take the cloth and ivory from the market stand to Nyssa’s neighbor, an older woman to whom she used to carry stew on cool evenings. She’s to see to the lease and the apartment as well, though she doesn’t know if the landlord will speak to her. For once, it’s because Merrill’s a stranger and no relative, not because of the blood magic or the tendency to traipse in other people’s gardens without permission. I even saw an alienage elf give her a nod of recognition on our way out after Nyssa died, which is practically an embrace for her by now. She’s still pale and too concerned with that contraption of a mirror, but perhaps this is a step in the right direction.

Speaking of directions, there’s word on the winds that Castillon’s floating back into town to claim Isabela’s debt. She’s working on some foolish plan involving the Blooming Rose and a secret trail, and I adore every ridiculous part of it. That woman has more machinations than Varric’s clockwork crossbow.

Damn. I keep thinking about Nyssa’s face when I told her I’d help.

29th August. Stifling. Politically and weatherly, I should say, with the humidity like a wall pressing us down into the cobbles

Sold my soul to get Isabela her ship. Or--if not the whole--at least another little bit of it, as Fenris’s disapproving looks keep telling me every time she starts waxing on about her lovely new beauty. I could have bought her a ship. I could have even paid to have Castillo killed--Maker’s blood, I could have gone and done it myself the moment Isabela was away, but I didn’t, and now he’s free to continue slaving (for now, anyway), and she’s free to take herself off into the horizon the moment the winds call her and tear me apart all over again.

Do you know what the worst part is, journal?

I saw her eyes the moment she stepped on that ship for the first time, knowing her to be hers, every plank and nail and inch of rope, and I’d do it all again for her without a second’s thought.

2nd Kingsway. One orange leaf on the trees in the square before the Chantry today. Don’t make me empty promises, autumn

Jule’s and Pelarie’s wedding today! Jule wore a lovely brown and green dress embroidered in gold thread, and Pelarie wore the same green trimmed in white. I caught a glimpse of her face, right when they met each other at the back of the Chantry to walk towards Mother Natta together, and just for a moment all I could think of was the first time I ever met Pelarie, a tiny thing too young for her taffeta sitting in my parlor, her terrible mother eating Orana’s tea-cakes and smiling at me like she owned me already.

Her mother wasn’t smiling today, but she was there, and Jule’s mother beamed bright enough for both of them anyway. I’d wager she even outshone the little flame they lit in the shared cup afterwards, though now that I think of it, that might have been due to the diamond the size of my fist dangling from her necklace.

Fenris went with me. I’ll refrain from describing my catlike satisfaction at holding his hand (in public even, Bride preserve me), even if it was mostly just between us while we sat in the pews. I never really dreamed of marriage as a girl, preoccupied as I was with keeping the family safe and the mule happy and plowing, but I’d marry him if he wanted. Flames, I’d marry him just to spite Lord Stinton Fucking Forrester, who was also there (poor judgement, Lady Ashbridge!), and whose face pinched so badly when he saw us his mouth practically sucked out the back of his head. A less lofty reason, perhaps, but since Fenris refuses to permit me to shout my affection for him from the Hightown rooftops, I find I must be satisfied with taking his hand in public and watching people I dislike wither on the inside for it.

It helps significantly that he looks like some stern foreign lord in that Tevinter dress tunic and the black trousers that fit him all the way down. Most handsome man in the room, and he didn’t even know it.

Which isn’t to say he didn’t look infinitely better out of them later, though. Ha!

9th Kingsway. There was one whole single breeze today, I swear it

Toby has, I think, become overly familiar with the neighbor’s grey hunting bitch. I told him he was under no circumstances to make any rash decisions, and he licked my nose and ate a metal pie tin in answer, so I may or may not have broken through. We’ll see if any puppies emerge with iron stomachs and a penchant for stealing fowl, I suppose, though I can’t deny they’d be heart-stealingly adorable.

It’s been quiet all week. It makes me uneasy.

14th Kingsway

Marethari’s dead, and Merrill’s shattered the mirror. Fenris was cruel to her after. So was Anders. I lost my temper at both of them and upset Merrill even more in the doing.

Flames and pyre!

I wanted that thing gone, but not like this.

17th Kingsway. Cool

Went back to speak to the Dalish today. I went by myself, which probably wasn’t wise, but Merrill’s lost like a kit in the snow and I didn’t want anyone else’s judgement or catty remarks or -- or over-kindness to get in the way.

Master Ilen says Marethari told no one what she was going to do. Her--First isn’t the right word, I know, because it was different elvhen and Merrill said she hadn’t been replaced yet anyway--some student of hers that she was close to suspected she’d done something foolish. He said the girl followed us up the mountain and came down again when we went into the cave with the idol.

He supposes he’s the elder now, until the clan comes to a choice on who will lead them next. He said they won’t kill Merrill if they see her--bitter thanks to me--but she’s not welcome alone any longer.

I asked if I could take Merrill something from the clan to remember Marethari by. I told him she loved her still and grieves her death. He said they’d left Marethari’s body in the cave where she’d sold herself to save something not worth the selling, and that I was welcome to anything left that hadn’t been taken by birds or the earth. 

I was so angry! So angry, and I told him so, and I told him Merrill loved her clan more than her own life and everything she did was for their sake, and if they were still too stubborn to see it after all this time they might as well be heartless.

He looked at me, and he said that it would be better to die than to have his heart killed in the saving. 

I wanted to pretend I didn’t know what he meant. I wanted to keep my righteous anger for Merrill’s sake, and for all the lost sods in Kirkwall who’ve had their families turn away from them for--for Maker knows why, but...

All I could see was my mother’s face, and the peace in her eyes when she told me not to save her.

I went up the mountain to the cave and took up Marethari’s staff, and then I walked to Merrill’s home in the alienage and knocked at her door. She wouldn’t let me in, so I tucked the staff in against the doorjamb and went to visit Gamlen. Charade was there too, so we played cards and drank until the sun went down and Gamlen started snoring, and then Charade took me home with her on account of me not being fit to walk Lowtown alone in my state.

So says she. A bandit pissed himself at the sight of my face two weeks ago. I didn’t even have to say anything.

She’s laid me out a pallet on her floor and she’s very studiously ignoring my burning down of all her candles, but I think I’m finished with this. As much as I’ll ever be, anyway, until Merrill lets me back in through the cracks.

I remembered to send a note to Orana this time. At least I managed that.

25th Kingsway. Warm again, but in a desperate sort of way, as if the season knows it’s on its way out, finally, Maker

Fenris apologized to Merrill today. He didn’t know I heard him; we were getting ready to go after a band of blood mages that’s been taking young women from Lowtown, and he was down the stairs at the Hanged Man as I was coming out of Varric’s suite. He didn’t quite apologize for the sentiment, but he did for the tone, and the timing, and he said he knew he’d hurt her in the saying and regretted it.

Merrill thanked him, because she’s the most generous person I’ve ever met, and he hemmed and hned and extricated himself from the conversation as quickly (and gracelessly--I knew there had to be something he wasn’t superb at) as he could. By the time I came down the stairs he was standing across the bar at one of the sooty windows, but Merrill was still there, and she saw me, and she smiled as she lifted Marethari’s staff. She didn’t say anything, but her eyes were shining.

28th Kingsway. Rained all day in Kirkwall, the puddled streets just about empty of life

The Followers of She have been ousted at last, and all the girls living that they still had captive have been returned to their homes. There was one girl, a little older than the rest (sixteen? seventeen?) who’s a mage & the oldest of five (all girls, Maker preserve that family). She seemed familiar, somehow, but I couldn’t place her. Her name was Gloria. It’s also worth noting that every single woman in her family has the most blazing golden hair, and even the rain couldn’t keep their spirits dampened as she bounded through the door to her home in Lowtown. I must have seen her around Gamlen’s place, I suppose. Maker, it’s such a precious thing when someone can be saved!

There was a demon at the end of it, a corrupted desire named Hanker, and she spoke to me before she died. She said she could see the heart of me and she could give me what I wanted, if I’d spare her, if I’d become a vessel for her power.

I told her I was too prone to breaking crockery as it was, thank you very much, and she’d have to look elsewhere to meet her quota. Then Fenris stabbed her right through the heart from behind, and she turned into embers and purple ash that reeked of rotten eggs.

Varric says he’s going to turn it into a new chapter of Hard in Hightown. I told him if I featured in it at all, I’d hire someone else to write my authoritative biography, and he only laughed and shook his head. I don’t trust him one inch.

2nd Harvestmere. Guess what lucky sod got to get a cape and scarf out of the coat closet this morning

There are things I’ve been discovering lately that I never knew I didn’t know. For instance, I’ve learned that having Fenris’s fingers resting on the side of my neck as we sleep is more important to me than breathing. I’ve learned there’s a very specific way to bother his ears that’ll have him bothering me in an equally excellent way in less than a handful of minutes. I’ve learned that the slightly puffy-eyed glare he gives with one eye when I wake him too early in the morning is more precious to me than a fistful of rubies, even the ones the size of quail eggs Lord Ashbridge wears every Firstday.

I have more scars than he does. The Arishok helped with that, certainly, and it does bother me a bit there’s a stripe along my ribs where I can’t feel his fingers, but the few he does have are marks of worse stories than mine, so I think we still come out more evens than odds.

And yet...

There’s something I’ve noticed, mostly when he’s tired but sometimes when he’s just had a difficult day, or a long one, and I don’t know quite how to say it. It’s almost as if he--craves touch. To be touched, I mean, or to just--just cuddle, if that weren’t wholly the wrong word for it. To--to--sit close and--

Andraste! If even I don’t know what I mean, how can I expect anybody else to understand?

After dinner, in two glasses of whiskey, loose, articulate, devilishly attractive to all who see upon me. Look upon me

What I meant to say earlier is that last night, when we came home from the Coast, after we’d both had (tragically separate, but we were ruined with ichor) baths, and I’d gone to the library, Fenris came in and sat down beside me closer than he ever does usually, and over the course of the next twenty minutes (or thereabouts), via the deep secret signs of sideways glances and a half-opened gesture or two, and my asking, his head ended up directly in my lap.

He trusts me. How terrifying!

His eyes were closed and his hair was damp from the bath, so it was more grey than white, and he was warm and heavy and the lyrium sang as I brushed down his neck. He was wearing no armor, only a soft green shirt and linen trousers for sleeping, and his eyes were closed, and one hand was on his chest and his fingers were curled into the fabric, just a little, and gently, and every now and then as he breathed he’d thumb absently across the seam of his collar.

My heart might have broken every rib in the beating, it hurt so badly.

I have to stop for tonight. I’ve been so caught in the memory it’s taken me half an hour to write even these few lines, and Fenris has turned away from the candles and gone to sleep. His back has pressed up against me, though, and I can feel him breathing, slow & deep as the way the tide pulls at the docks in the evening.

Maker. This whiskey’s stronger than I thought. Lest I berate myself later for maudlinism, I will remind myself that today I kicked Toby in the ribs by accident, nearly smashed one of Fenris’s fingers in a door, and discovered I no longer may eat fish after sundown (indigestion).

There. Humility!

[holydragon2808]

Replaying Dragon Age II and Forgot How Much I Loved Bethany Hawke

It’s been quite some time since my last full run of the Dragon Age series. Finished my replay of Dragon Age Origins some time last week and I’m now replaying DAII for the umpteenth time lol. I used to see a lot of people say that Bethany is so one dimensional compared to Carver which I’ve always disagreed with that personally. Despite my preference for Bethany, I do find both twins to have a lot of depth to both their respective characters. However, here are the reasons why I’ve always enjoyed having Bethany around. I started a discussion a few months back on the Dragon Age Wiki site about which twin I preferred and why (as well as asking others about their preferences) so I just decided to copy/past what I said on that site. Gonna undercut because it’s pretty lengthy.

I personally always preferred Bethany over Carver. One, I don't care for playing mages in RPGs in general as I said before (just not my style personally. Usually into the sneaky rogue type most of the time or I'll play a warrior of some sort) two, I just can't get into a sibling rivalry type of relationship when it's already forced onto my character (my Hawke had enough to worry about with the other party members and their colossal issues as well as trying to look after Leandra and in my case trying to keep Bethany out of the Templar's radar in Act 1) without having a sibling who's basically a younger and even more annoying version of Gamlen in her ear constantly complaining about being overlooked and it being all her fault and blah blah blah) and three I just found Bethany's character to be more interesting and actually more plot relevant if she joins the Circle.

I see a lot of people in general believe that Bethany is one dimensional or doesn't develop like Carver does. I personally disagree with that entirely. I actually like how different the twins are in their developments. Carver wanted to be a famous swordsman and make a name for himself and feel like he's apart of something important (which is why he thrives and gets that stick out his butt when he joins the Grey Wardens). It's cool to see his development and all but it has very little plot relevance IMO with the mage/templar conflict in Kirkwall.

Even if he joined the Templars instead of the Wardens, I never felt any reason for my Hawke to sympathize with their side of the conflict at all (him joining the Templars seemed to be more about him trying to get back at his brother/sister and being desperate to escape their shadow than him genuinely believing in the cause, especially in Kirkwall's Circle) so for me personally, it was hard for me to get invested in the conflict even if I'm a mage considering how oblivious the Templars are of that fact. It makes sense that they can't touch you in Acts 2 and 3 but not so much in Act 1. You'd think they'd at least comment on it (though I'm aware the developers had to cut corners because of time constraints or whatever) and it just breaks the immersion for me when I'm a mage and Carver's alive despite his potential for character growth from whiny annoying brother with a massive chip on his shoulder due to his own insecurities (that he projects onto Hawke a bit unfairly at times) to a very mature, considerate and capable warrior. Where some people find sibling rivalries interesting, I find them cliche and overdone and I just couldn't get into this one. The game gave me no real reason to care about mending the relationship (or enforcing it) beyond role playing purposes. They just played up his jerk qualities a little too much in the first act without enough balance with his more virtuous qualities for me to care about him in general.

However, with Bethany, her arc is a bit more subtle compared to Carver’s, but subtle =/= one dimensional. All she's ever wanted was to feel a sense of normalcy and acceptance. Her character arc isn't about proving herself as some awesome warrior or making a name for herself (though she's definitely awesome in battle). It's about her reconciling her apostate status with (her initial) perception of the Maker's/Andraste's will regarding mages as well as her faith in the Maker as well as finding a place where she doesn't feel like a burden to her family.

I found Bethany to be surprisingly refreshing considering the majority of the cast has far too much to angst about. Throughout Act One, she confides in your character about her issues without immaturely casting blame at your feet (Carver) or dipping into wangst territory (Anders and Fenris come to mind though I do like Fenris overall and hate Anders in this game but that's another discussion entirely) which gets me far more willing to hear her out and indulge her personally rather than Carver and his massive chip on his shoulder and his petty insults to garner attention and a rise out of his elder sibling. All her life she's felt like a burden who's role as an apostate forced her family to go (in her eyes) way too far out their way to keep her with them. She brings it up a lot and it's clear that one of her flaws is that she's become too adjusted to being protected ("It [being an apostate] was something I never had to work for. Other people took the risks to keep me free") to really understand just how bad other mages had it and just how lucky she truly was to have a family that loved her ( As she says in the final goodbye on the mage path: "I always thought it was hard living outside the Circle. Always on the run. I never realized how free I was").

By leaving her behind during the Deep Roads Expedition quest after she expresses she wants to go, in a way, Hawke is unintentionally reinforcing this idea that she a burden that needs protecting (which similarly to Carver, is why you gain rivalry points with her if you leave her behind). She also realizes that as long as she's with the family, Hawke will always prioritize keeping her safe above pursuing any dreams they might have which is exactly why she doesn't put up a fight (and begs Hawke not to basically stab Cullen to death) when she's apprehended by the Templars. For the first time in her life, she is the one making a sacrifice for her family instead of the other way around. I personally thought this was a good start to her character growth into a young independent woman who could learn to accept herself as a mage in a world (sans Tevinter) that despises magic (and with being forced on the other side of the fence, she would inevitably later gain a better understanding of what Anders meant with "You have no idea just how lucky you were. To have someone who loved and could help you. Most mages would kill for that").

With Bethany in the Circle, it gave my character a real reason to care about helping the mages in the city (and being pissed at the Templars for taking Bethany away and being angry at herself for not getting back in time to reclaim the estate) and a real reason why she couldn't do as much as she'd like for them (Knight-Commander Meredith practically holding Bethany as leverage to get Hawke to cooperate with her during the "On the Loose" side quest). Despite a lot of the mages being completely crazy in Kirkwall, Hawke (or mine anyway) would always stand by her sister (and was practically waiting for the moment to be able to openly defy Meredith and her zealotry.

Reuniting with Bethany again in the Gallows (if you side with the Mages in "The Last Straw") was actually one of my favorite moments about that ending. Seeing her as a confident young woman happily and (most importantly) proudly and unashamedly embracing her magical gift, willing to fight for her freedom as well as that of other mages (in a much healthier way than Anders/Justice) and gaining a much healthier perspective of the Maker's will and magic (that being locked away and living in fear and oppression just for being a mage just "cannot be the maker's will") spoke volumes about her willpower and development over the years. I also like to think that she found her personal understanding of what her father tried to teach her ("Magic will serve what is best in me, not that which is most base") and was able to use that and pass it along to her apprentices and I love in Legacy how she says she still finds strength in those words even while being locked away in the worst Circle in Thedas. It's a far cry from the insecure, scared, naive and ashamed of her gift (or rather ashamed of the difficulties it put on her family) little girl she was in the first act.

In other words, I loved that the hardships she endured in the Gallows for the past 6 years didn't break her spirit or resolve nor did it break her faith in the Maker. It served as a nice and unexpected contrast to my own character during my very first run as a warrior years ago. I was playing a sarcastic Hawke and during their final conversation about the Maker, I think sarcastic Hawke can say something like "He just loves watching us rip each other apart" where Bethany is like "I cannot believe that. The Maker is just and merciful. This injustice was created by men. A new age begins today. People will overcome their fears and find better ways to live with mages. Whether we live to see it or not, a new age is coming brother/sister. I wish mother had lived to see this. I hope she's found peace". It was just interesting to note that my character's challenges made her more cynical in her view of the Maker while Bethany's hardships only made her stronger in some ways. I was proud of her really.

As for Warden Bethany, I just didn't think it fit her personally. Just like Templar Carver, I personally felt it a step back from where they were in act one. They both each make peace with their fates in these scenarios too, but I find Warden Carver and Circle Bethany to be better. The latter in particular. I don't feel like a character has to always go from innocent and nice to bitter/resentful or to constantly angst about everything in order for it to be considered "deep" or "compelling" growth. I like that Bethany was still very much her sweet old self in the Circle but she's become far less naive and sheltered and unafraid to fight for what she truly believes in and embraces her prodigious magical talents (because face it she's pretty awesome in a fight and I loved having her as my mage throughout act one and was devastated that I was forced to use someone else).

I enjoyed Dragon Age 2 despite it's many flaws and I always play rogue (my very first run was a 2 handed warrior though but after I did a duel wielding rogue and stuck with that) and Bethany always goes to the circle in my play throughs. See this post for a follow up on the Hawke Siblings Warden path.

[theharellan]

ღ ♦ ☼ ☾

ღ your favourite da:i banter

i’m gonna highlight one that for some reason ppl give solas a lot of flack for. i say “some reason” but i know the reason, it’s ppl having difficulties admitting dorian sometimes deserves to be criticised.

Dorian: Solas, for what it's worth, I'm sorry.Dorian: The elven city of Arlathan sounds like a magical place, and for my ancestors to have destroyed it...Solas: Dorian... hush.Solas: Empires rise and fall. Arlathan was no more "innocent" than your own Tevinter in its time.Solas: Your nostalgia for the ancient elves, however romanticized, is pointless.Solas: If you wish to make amends for past transgressions, free the slaves of all races who live in Tevinter today.Dorian: I... don't know that I can do that.Solas: Then how sorry are you?

ppl seem to hate that solas doesn’t accept his apology and?? why should he, it sounds like all it would do is alleviate dorian’s guilt about his empire’s past, while doing nothing for elvhenan, solas, modern tevinter slaves, nor even dorian’s development.

solas is just pointing out that being sorry means nothing if you do nothing about it. it also highlights some of the similarities in their arcs, with both eventually choosing to do something about the state of the homes they love (referring to fen’harel’s rebellion in elvhenan rather than solas’s current plans)

♦ your favourite piece of lore

i already talked about my fave lore aka everything about the dalish/elves in general in da:i and i talked about dwarves elsewhere so...

rivain??? i love rivain?

i think as a culture it seems incredibly interesting, a real melting pot of their own traditions, andrastrianism, and the qun. and given what we know of the former, i also have to wonder how it meshes with the latter two. we have some idea w/ andrastrianism, they had a circle but it was much more lax and mages were allowed to have families and seers even merged with spirits, similarly to the avvar. the qun however is harder to imagine fitting in well in that climate, although this is partially b/c we’ve never seen the qun as it’s supposed to be in the games, beyond exposure to individuals, and the one example of a qunari subculture in-game doesn’t end so well.

what happens to the circle as dairsmuid is a tragic example of what a pile of shit the “circles/templars are for our protection” is. mages in rivain are revered (or at least the women are,) and as far as we’ve learned there’s nothing to indicate they cause a lot of problems, and to the chantry that is a problem. it’s a clear indication that everything they’ve been preaching isn’t as true as they want it to be, and so it has to go.

i really hope we go to rivain one day. like more than anywhere else, i want to go to rivain. i remember a few years at dragon-con when ppl asked where some workers at bioware wanted to go, weekes said rivain, so hopefully one day i’ll get my wish.

☼ some positivity for a canon character roleplay blog

bethany is a criminally underrated character and @vigilflight gives her the attention she’s deserved. what she’s done with wasa in particular has grown into something really special and i feel grateful for being able to watch it unfold even as my gut clenches in preparation for whatever shit they’re about to pull next. i’m probably gonna end up modding my game so i can play through w/ one of my mage hawkes and experience warden bethany for myself and it’s 100% lisa’s doing.

☾ some positivity for an original character roleplay blog

shout-out to @exnobis and all adelle’s creations, but in this case specifically nox who i had the pleasure of hearing all about the other day! elvhenan muses are hard, there’s so much history, more than we can ever hope to live. nox’s life is so sad and fraught with suffering and hearing how it led him to hurt others is heartbreaking and yet fascinating.

i’m finally getting a nox thread and honestly i’m hype to write the starter. adelle is a blessing.

[squirrelwithatophat]

In addition, with Orsino in the Side With the Mages ending, it makes zero sense that when he desperately needs Hawke’s help to save the rest of the Circle, he would suddenly and out of the blue, without any prompting whatsoever, go all, “By the way, I used to be buddies with the guy that murdered your mom and knew he experimented on corpses.” Even preserving that idiotic Harvester boss fight, he could literally have just given a heads-up or vaguely mumbled about a dangerous forbidden technique that he read about in a book somewhere that might be helpful now.

When I finally got around to playing a Templar run, it all made so much more sense - in part because Meredith is the one to bring it up. In the confrontation inside the Gallows, Orsino bitterly complains that despite all the accusations he had never used blood magic until this point, now that she is forcing them to fight for their lives. Meredith snaps back that no one knows blood magic automatically, and thus he must have learned it somewhere, at which point he finally admits to having heard about Quentin’s “research” (rather than having himself been a practicing blood mage or making demon deals). If present, Bethany is horrified - why would he cover it up? Why, because the revelation that the leader of the Circle had once been close to a man who later became a blood mage and then a serial killer who murdered the mother of Kirkwall’s great hero (Orsino claiming to have been aware of the blood magic but not the murders until after Quentin’s death) could trigger Templar crackdowns up to and including outright Annulment. This makes much more sense as a motive for both the cover-up and the later confession. His role is to protect the mages of the Circle. In this scenario, he felt unable to report actual crime to the authorities out of fear of violent/disproportionate collective punishments (at the time of the confrontation, Meredith is attacking innocent mages in retaliation for the actions of a single apostate, indicating this fear was perfectly rational), and now that he is about to die and has nothing to lose (Hawke is already about to murder him, so it’s not as if there is any reason to try to stay on their good side), he can speak freely in response to questioning from others. His rationale here is consistent with his dialogue with a pro-mage Hawke in Best Served Cold, where his primary fear is that if Meredith discovers any more cases of blood magic, she will be able to publicly justify an Annulment (hence why he wants Hawke to investigate rather than the Templars). Once an Annulment is already in progress, legitimacy be damned (given that she openly admits that this is retaliation for the assassination of Elthina rather than in response to any threat emanating from within the Circle) and Meredith has repeatedly made clear her refusal to revoke it, the old rules no longer apply. Here, to defend his claim of only resorting to blood magic out of sheer desperation, against accusations of personally being a blood mage all along, he would rather admit to having had a past relationship with a blood mage and learning from casual observation (instead of practice).

pretty sure by now that they never actually wrote the mage ending for da2, just the templar ending

it’s relatively common knowledge that the harvester fight with orsino wasn’t supposed to happen if you sided with the mages but they were too short on time to do anything else so they threw it in anyway for the sake of having two boss fights, but that’s not what’s really got me thinking this

it’s cullen

because the narrative beats the story tries to hit with cullen are absolutely incoherent. he’s casually complicit in enacting the rite of tranquility until meredith tries to kill hawke and that’s the moment he puts his foot down? then meredith turns on her own people and cullen’s fighting her with us? then he stands down and lets hawke leave rather than get his ass handed to him? cullen’s trying to carry so much narrative weight in the climax and it’s like. why. lmfao. why is he even here. why do we get him as an ally in the final boss fight. what possible purpose does his presence actually serve.

I couldn’t make sense of it so I just assumed it was bad writing for a long time, but I no longer think that’s the case, because he’s not out of place at all in the templar ending

hawke and cullen fighting mages side by side. meredith succumbs to her paranoia and turns against her own allies. cullen heroically stands with hawke against her. the day is saved whoop dee do. that’s a perfectly coherent climax, actually! it makes sense!

it just took me years to notice because I always play through the ending they didn’t have time to actually write oops ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[griffinsanddragons]

Unexpected Developments [Part One]

Amid an important investigation, Aveline needs Hawke to stay out of trouble and Anders reluctantly agrees to help her–for Hawke’s sake.

Her troubles, however, aren’t as simple as her friends believe.

AKA, That feel when you and the person you hate share a mutual friend who can’t stop doing shady things.

I’ve been gone because I’ve been sad, but I wrote a thing to share. 

Part 2 coming…eventually. 

Takes place sometime before ‘My Dearest Sister.’

Happy Reading.

The Guardsmen had two problems--the first filtered into the second. First was the body of the man laying dead on the ground and the second was the scrutiny of the Guard Captain.

As for the man, whoever killed him broke his nose; it sat bloody, bruised, and twisted on his face. 

Ghastly purple bruises sat right below his eyes and welts lined the rest of what might have been a handsome face before the beating.

“Let it be someone else’s problem!” His partner shot from the mouth of the alley. “He won’t be going anywhere.”

Sickly gray fog settled like smoke against the cold stone streets and buildings of their city, but the shining metal plate of a Templar could not be ignored despite the low visibility.

Someone, inevitably, would find him, run to the Guard or a Templar and The Captain would not be happy.

“Second one this week.”The Guardsmen sighed, recalling the lazy report written by the guard who found the first of the bodies.

Someone had to tell The Captain something–And it may as well be him.

Once the Templars were called to move and identify brother-in-arms, The Guardsman wrote a thorough report that pinned the murder on a random, Lowtown gang.

As suspected, however, Guard-Captain Aveline wasn’t happy.

“That’ll be all, Guardsman.” She dismissed him with a flick of the wrist.

Outside, he could hear the others whispering. He imagined them crowding behind the door and sharing looks of sympathy. No one, if they could help it, submitted their daily reports so early. 

“What will you do, Captain?” He asked, confused by the haunted look that took her stony facade away.

She recognized departed’s name.

“Search for answers.”

A search that would lead to the estate of an old, and frankly quite troubling, friend.

[Keep Reading]

Hawke’s attic, Aveline discovered some time ago, was the largest room her mansion had to spare.

The squatters, she assumed, transformed the space into a library of the magical, arcane, and smuggled Tevinter literature–the things any good Andrastian would burn or throw away. 

But Hawke preserved it all, keeping everything in place. 

She potted plants, however, and let them spread across the room without boundary: they grew wildly upon tables, hangers, hooks, and shelves, forming a bright, harmonious display–a stark contrast to her more recent moods. 

Hawke sat at the table in the center of the room with a solemn expression and deep, tired bags that dampened her umber skin’s glow. A book was laid before her, though she’d apparently given up on reading. Instead, she gazed across the room, looking out at the city through the attic’s dormer window. 

“Hawke,” Aveline greeted, “I see you’ve found that hobby we’ve discussed.” Contrary to her previous demeanor, Aveline spoke in a calm, friendly voice.

“Yes well–plants are far easier to deal with than people; I can replace them if they die and they won’t abandon you.” Hawke smiled through her words, biting back their bitter edge. She turned toward Aveline.

“Thinking about Bethany, I take it?”

“I’m always thinking about Bethany.”

The day she left for the Circle, (the same day Hawke, Varric, Fenris and Anders returned from their expedition of the Deep Roads,) Hawke confided in Aveline:

‘I’ve spent my whole life taking care of her,’ she confessed, her voice wavering, teetering back and forth like a ship at sea, ‘I fought so she wouldn’t have to, gave her everything I could, I-I’ve done everything to keep her from the Circle and now…I don’t know what to do. How do I-What do I do?’ Aveline didn’t have an answer–only leads: a job, a hobby…a cause she could believe in. Something to do to help soothe the grieving.

“Have you heard anything?”

“No. And I doubt I ever will.”

“Hawke-”

“You’re not here to help me wallow in misery, are you? I can do that fine alone, Aveline.” She looked down at the table, staring as though she found the polished wood interesting.

“No.” Aveline stood at the edge of the table as though moving any closer would cause Hawke to break. “I came to ask about this.” She waved the report before her, causing Hawke to look up again.

“It’s…a report, Aveline–written by a very bad speller,”

“The name, Hawke. You recognize it, don’t you?”

“Should I?”

“This isn’t the time for games. What do you know about this?”

“Nothing.”

“Did you, or whoever gave you the names of those Templars, do this? Did you have this man killed?”

“That does sound like something I’d do, doesn’t it?” Her voice was an awkward blend of dejection and whimsy, “But I’m hurt that you’d accuse me. Beatings aren’t really my style, you know that–they’re far too messy.”

“That isn’t an answer.”

“No Aveline,” Hawke sighed, “I did not have that person killed.”

“Continue.” The paper rustled as she folded her arms and searched Hawke’s expression for a tell that she was lying.

“And I didn’t beat him to death either.” 

“You truly expect me to believe it’s a coincidence both Templars we’ve found were involved in Bethany’s-”

“Abduction?” She cut her off, filling in the words bitterly. 

“Departure.” Aveline finished, prompting Hawke to scoff and rolled her eyes. 

How she acquired such information, Aveline didn’t know and Hawke had no interest in telling. All evidence pointed to Varric, however, who seemed to know just about everything happening in the city–but that didn’t matter, not yet.

What mattered was how adamant she’d been about extracting her vengeance then, and how she plotted their demise. It was only after Aveline reminded her of the promise she made to Bethany that Hawke backed down from her violent claims.

She wasn’t to do anything reckless.

“When you consider the brazen way they tend to rip apart families, I’m sure both those Templars made plenty of enemies–I wouldn’t be surprised if someone in one of the gangs had a mage for a father or a sister or something–it isn’t unlikely.”

Aveline narrowed her eyes, placing Hawke at the center of her dangerous gaze.

“That’s an oddly specific circumstance.”

“Shouldn’t you be asking these questions to the gangs down in Lowtown? You know, the ones who really did the killing?” Hawke smiled for the first time that day; it was a toothy, flagrant grin that didn’t make it to her eyes. Had it not been Hawke, that smile would have told Aveline all she needed to know about the case.

But she wanted to make things difficult.

“And besides, Aveline. The city really is better off without them. I’d like to think of these things as justice, for all the families they’ve torn apart and broken.”

The last thing Aveline needed was to play one of Hawke’s silly games–she wasn’t as charming as she’d like to believe–her words, however, gave Aveline another lead.  

Justice was her cue to look for answers elsewhere.

“You!”

Cracks of blue broke out across Anders’ skin in response to the harsh, angry tone of her voice. And as he turned to defend himself against the hostile intruder, his stone pestle fell and rolled across the floor.

Justice retreated back into the confines of their mind, however, when there was nothing in their line of sight to be afraid of.

It was only Aveline.

“Have you changed your mind about that salve? Or are you here to arrest me for something?”

“I might be.” She approached him at the table, glaring at she reached into her pack for the report she’d shown Hawke earlier. “What can you tell me about this?” She held the parchment before him, the top wrinkling beneath her tight, rigid grasp.

“It’s a report.” He sucked the air through his teeth, “clearly.”

“Read it, you ass.” He took the paper from her with a roll of his eyes and read the hurried, slanted script of a guard too frantic to check their spelling.

He recognized one of the names–it had been spoken in passing by one of his contacts in the gallows. They weren’t particularly cruel–but not particularly helpful either. 

“So a Templar is killed and I’m to take responsibility? Is it so surprising there are others who hate them in this city? Or are you so far gone you’ve taken to casting stones at the first apostate you see?”

“Shove it, Anders,” Aveline’s voice was sharp and firm, her underlying hatred of him clear as the sun on a summer day. “I spoke with Hawke–This is your damned influence isn’t it? Taking advantage of her to further your misplaced cause–is there anything you won’t stoop to?”

“Taking ad- you think Hawke did this? You think I asked her to?” He wasn’t sure what to address first: her adamant belief he held some sort of sway over Hawke’s actions, or the fact she referred to his cause, freedom for all mages, as ‘misplaced.’

“I believe she could have, with the right accomplice. ” She folded her arms across her chest and stood firmly on her beliefs. 

He scoffed.

“But you’ve no proof of anything.” Typical. “Then again, who needs facts when you’ve got the power to dictate the truth? Do you plan to arrest us together with your unfounded claims?” He’d fight her if he had to, though he hoped it wouldn’t come to that. Hawke trusted Aveline, though he didn’t fathom why, but he trusted Hawke. 

She’d never allow Aveline to take him.

“I plan to put an end to this before she, or anyone else, winds up dead.”

“And if she’s innocent?”

“Then I owe her an apology.” 

“I’d pay good coin to see that.”

“I’m sure.” She took the report from his hands and looked it over again. “If you’re as innocent as you claim, then help me.”

“Help you protect Templars? Should I check your head for injury?”

“Must you always be such a tit?” Was ‘basic civility,’ not a lesson taught in the Circle?

“I’m told it’s a part of my charm.”

“Ugh.” She rolled her eyes, “Just–talk to her.“  Aveline advised him, “she listens to you. What do you think happens if she’s caught? Or if anyone else turned their eyes to her? She may not be guilty, but this is where the evidence points. She needs to stay out of trouble and if she won’t listen to me, perhaps she’ll take advice from you.”

“Fine,” He agreed. “I’ll speak with her.” She was the first real friend he’s had since his time fighting alongside The Warden Commander and rest; Anders couldn’t see her rotting in some Templar dungeon or arrested for a crime she may not have even committed.

“That’s all I ask.”

[kirkwall-group-therapy]

City of Blood, ch3

[Mature content warning, Act 1: cursing, adult topics, violence]

Chapter Three: Blondie

 The next to join their party was yet another mage, much to Fenris’ brooding dismay. But he wasn’t just any mage. Anders, the hunk of Darktown. The healer with a heart of gold, and a bad case of spirit possession. Blondie made all the girls swoon. He was a bit rash, but even Sunshine found herself quickly forgetting about Lowtown Ivan.

You would think that his extraordinary healing abilities are what led Hawke to Anders, particularly given the dangerous line of work she was in, but that wasn’t the case. The Deep Roads expedition needed to find a way in, a good entrance to be precise. One that wasn’t already looted, caved in, or overflowing with Darkspawn, and the only group who would know the Deep Roads well enough in that area would be the Grey Wardens. Varric heard rumors about a Grey Warden who was hiding out in Darktown. Hawke and the group went to meet him, to see what he would be willing to trade for any information, or better yet, a map.

The clinic was located in the farthest corner of Darktown, which you could only find after navigating a series of tunnels, turns, switch backs, and stairs. It was easy to miss the right turn, or not see one entirely due to the dim lighting in Darktown. They had to ask a number of Darktown residents, many who refused to help, before they finally found it. A bright lantern lit up the front entrance. Hawke cautiously opened the door and quietly stepped inside. The clinic was surprisingly crowded, and nearly all of the occupants were Fereldan refugees. A few volunteer nurses scurried about, helping patients and directing others. But there was no sign of the man in charge, and certainly nothing that would indicate that a Grey Warden was hiding there.

“I sense magic,” Bethany whispered. “One of these people must be a mage healer.”

Finally they saw a man in the back. Tall, broad shoulder, blonde hair that just a few inches shorter than his shoulder. He was definitely a mage; he was bent over a small child waving his hands over the boy’s body. Visible, soft green glowing magic wrapped itself around the boy and flooded his body. The blonde man manipulated the current of the flowing magic, pushing it, pulling it, clutching it. Searching for something. He found it, and grabbed onto it, and tugged at it with all his might. Slowly but surely he dislodged it from the boy’s body. The boy gasped for air, coughed, and turned onto his side, color returning to his face. The blonde man exhaled loudly and nearly collapsed. Another volunteer braced him as the healer worked to catch his breath.

The group approached slowly, not wanting to interrupt his work. But the man sensed them, and smelled the thick scent of blood and death that permeated them - most notably Hawke. The scent that only soldiers, mercenaries, and professional killers had. He moved surprisingly quickly, like lighting he whisked a staff, hidden from view, into the air, and gracefully pivoted on his heels to face them.

“I have made this place a sanctum of healing and salvation,” he said to them. “Why do you threaten it?”

“Easy,” Hawke said, slowly putting her hands in the air. “We mean you no harm.”

“I thought Wardens were dedicated to the blight and dying in the Deep Roads,” Bethany said. “Not healing refugees.”

“The Wardens? They sent you, didn’t they? I’m not going back,” Anders said. “Blighters made me get rid of my cat.”

“Wait, that’s the reason you’re not wanting going back to the Wardens? Not the taint or the constant violence and death?” Varric laughed.

“Ser Pounce-a-lot didn’t like the Deep Roads,” Anders joked.

“His name was Ser Pounce-a-lot?” Bethany giggled.

“Er, I assure you, we’re not here on behalf of the Wardens. We are planning an expedition to the Deep Roads, and are hoping you might have some information or better yet, a map, of the routes in this area. Any information you have could help save many lives,” Hawke said.

“I will die a happy man if I never think about the blighted Deep Roads again,” he said. “You can’t imagine what I’ve gone through to get here.”

“I’m not asking you to come with us,” Hawke said. “But surely you have some information that would be useful to us? We’ll pay you well for your information.”

“I could smell death on you as soon as you drew near,” Anders said. “Based on that, plus your armor and stature, am I correct in assuming that you’re mercenaries or something similar? And at least somewhat successful, since you’re not dead yet?”

“Ah, yes, something like that,” Hawke said, a little confused as why he wanted to know. And also surprised to hear the bit about her smelling like death. That was unsettling for sure.

“But we’re good mercenaries,” Bethany said.  “We help people.” What a beautifully innocent flower she was.

“I … have need of your skill,” Anders said, “more than your coin. A favor for a favor? Does that sound like a fair trade? You help me, I’ll help you?”

“Ah, perhaps. Depending on what your favor is,” Hawke said. “I don’t do anything involving children or animals,” she joked.

“I have a map of the Deep Roads of this area, as you’ve requested. In return, I need your help to save a close friend. I came to Kirkwall to aid him myself. He’s a mage, a prisoner in the wretched Gallows. But the templars learned of my plans to free him. Help me bring him safely past them, and the map is yours,” he said.

“You want me to help break a mage out of the circle??” Hawke asked, shocked. Honestly, the price she thought was too steep and not a fair trade for the map.

“You want to make your friend an apostate?” Bethany asked.

“That’s such a weighted term, but yes,” Anders replied. “Andraste said magic should serve man, not rule him. But I’ve yet to find a mage who wants to rule anything. It goes against no will of the Maker for mages to live as free as other men.”

“I don’t disagree with you,” Hawke said. “But … breaking a mage out of the circle is no small ask. And we can’t afford any undue attention from the templars ourselves.”

“I can understand that,” Anders said. “But you don’t know what this circle is like. It’s worse than other mage towers. Karl and I have been exchanging letters, until the letters just stopped. His last letter said that Knight Commander Meredith was turning the circle into a prison. Mages are locked in their cells, refused appearances at court, made tranquil for the slightest of crimes.”

“But it’s not legal to make a mage tranquil if they’ve passed their harrowing,” Hawke said.

“You are surprisingly knowledgeable about mages,” Anders said.

“Our father was one,” Bethany said. “As … as am I,” she bravely stated.

“I see. You’re correct though,” Anders said. “And yet they’ve made over a dozen mages tranquil just this year. The more people you talk to, the worse the picture becomes. I have no interest in engaging with the templars either, and I don’t expect there to be any violent confrontation, but neither can I rule it out.”

“Varric, can I talk to you for a moment?” Hawke asked. The two stepped aside to have a private word.

“How badly do we need his maps? Is there no other way?” Hawke asked.

“I’m not too keen on this either,” Varric said. “But all of our other leads have turned up shit so far. Honestly, I think the entire expedition is a bust without his maps.”

“Fuck,” Hawke said. “I was afraid you were going to say that.” Bethany excused herself from speaking with Anders, and joined Hawke and Varric.

“Charlie, I know it’s risky. And it makes me nervous, but, I’d like to help him if we can,” Bethany said.

“We don’t really have a choice it seems,” Hawke said. “But I’m really not a fan of this. And you’re certainly not coming with us when we do this.”

“Sister, please. I want to help,” Bethany said.

“Out of the question. I will not blatantly dangle you in front of templars,” Hawke said.

“I feel for your friend, I really do,” Hawke said walking back over to Anders.

“So you won’t help me then?” He asked.

“Unfortunately I need your map, rather desperately it seems. So I find myself without any other option but to help you. But if my sister ends up in danger because of you, if this brings the templars to our front door step, you had better run,” Hawke warned.

“Understandable,” Anders said.

“What is the plan then?” Hawke asked, and sighed heavily.

“I sent Karl a message to meet me at the Chantry tonight. Maker willing, he’ll be there, alone. But if there are templars with him, I swear I’ll free him from them. Whatever the cost,” Anders said.

“Sounds like this will be fun,” Varric said sarcastically.

“Meet me outside the chantry tonight, just after dusk,” Anders said. “Should anything go wrong, don’t worry about me. Protect yourselves and we’ll rendezvous back here later.”

 Nothing ever goes as planned. That’s a written-in-stone law of the universe. How badly things deviate from the plan though, well, Hawke never seemed to have much luck in that area. They had entered the Chantry together that night, and found Karl without problem or reason for concern. And that’s as far as the things went according to the plan.

“Hello, Anders,” Karl said. He was facing the wall and his voice was flat, mono tone, completely devoid of emotion, of any feeling at all. “I knew you would come.”

“Karl, what’s wrong? Why are you talking like that?” Anders asked, fearing the worst.

“I was too rebellious, like you. The templars knew I had to be … made an example of,” Karl said, turning around to reveal the tranquil mark on his forehead.

“No.” Anders grieved.

“How else will mages ever master themselves? You’ll understand, Anders,” Karl continued, “As soon as the templars teach you to control yourself.”

It was a good thing that Hawke had refused to bring Bethany along - a small group of templars stepped out of the shadows as Karl finished speaking.

“This is the apostate,” Karl indicated toward Anders, still in that chilling, unfeeling tone.

“No!” Anders screamed. Anders fell to the floor and his body twitched. The was a sudden pulse of energy and his body glowed with blue fire, and his voice deepened and echoed. “You will never take another mage as you took him!” Anders bellowed.

The poor templars were no match for Hawke. More accurately, they were no match for Anders and all his wrath. They made short work of the few of templars, blood absolutely everywhere. All over the Chantry walls and tapestries, and the worn wooden pews.

“A-Anders, what did you do?” Karl asked, looking around confused. “It’s like … you brought a piece of the fade into this world. I had already forgotten what that feels like.”

“What did you do?” Hawke asked. “Not the fade part - the angry glowing bit.”

“It’s like a gateway to the fade is inside you, glowing like a beacon,” Karl said.

“It’s a … unique circumstance,” Anders said. “But that’s not important right now. Karl, what happened? How did they get you?”

“The templars here are far more vigilant than in Fereldan. They found a letter I was writing to you. You cannot imagine it Anders. All the color, all the music in the world, gone. I would gladly give up my magic, but this? I’ll never be whole again. Please, kill me before I forget again! I don’t know how you brought it back, but it’s fading,” Karl said.

“Karl, no,” Anders pleaded.

“Isn’t there any cure? Surely there has to be a way to reverse it?” Hawke asked. She had never heard of one, and the circles certainly would never approve, but they were already working outside the circle. Surely someone had a way to reverse it?

“Can you cure a beheading?” Anders asked angrily. “The dreams of tranquil mages are severed - forever.”

“Please Anders,” Karl begged.

“My sister says being a tranquil is a fate worse than death,” Hawke said softly.

“Indeed,” Anders agreed. Anders pulled out a small dagger. He looked into Karl’s face, the fade quickly receding, and Anders plunged the dagger into his heart. “Goodbye,” he mourned.

Karl crumpled to the floor.

“We should probably get out of here, before more templars arrive,” Varric suggested. They didn’t waste any time leaving the Chantry before anyone could discover who had murdered their templars.

Once back at the clinic, Anders pulled out a bitch of parchment. “The map is yours,” Anders said. Sorrow consumed his voice, his eyes, his whole body. He handed them over gently. “I … I need to be alone for a while. But thank you. You don’t know how much it means to me, that you were willing to help.”

Varric had his men begin reviewing them immediately. It wouldn’t be long before they identified one of the entrances on the map as the one to use. But they still had yet to collect the money they needed to convince Bartrand.

~

Hawke and Bethany returned to Anders clinic a few days later. Bethany thought it would be good if they checked up on him, after losing such a close friend.

“Hawke, Bethany,” Anders said a bit surprised when they stepped into the clinic.

“We wanted to come see how you were doing,” Hawke said. “I’m so sorry that things turned out like they did. I know he meant a lot to you.”

“It still … doesn’t seem real,” Anders said. “And I keep finding myself forgetting. I’ll think about how it’s strange that I still haven’t received a letter, or I’ll have a stray thought about something I want to include in a letter to him.”

“Is there anything we can do for you?” Bethany asked.

“You’re too kind,” Anders said. “Especially … especially after what you saw.”

“You mean when you glowed?” Hawke said. She had actually forgotten all about it.

“I mentioned that I have unique circumstances,” Anders said. “They are more unique than you may realize. I … this is hard to explain. When I was in Amaranthine, when I was with the Wardens, I met a spirit of Justice who was trapped outside the fade. We became friends, and he recognized the injustices that mages in Thedas face every day.”

“A spirit of Justice?” Bethany asked. “Father said that such spirits were incredibly rare.”

“How are they different from demons?” Hawke asked.

“Just as demons prey on the deadly sins of mankind, there are benevolent spirits who embody our virtues; spirits of compassion, fortitude … justice. They are the Maker’s first children, and they have all but given up on us,” Anders explained.

“What does this have to do with your eyes glowing?” Hawke asked, feeling more and more nervous about where this conversation was going.

“To live outside the fade, the spirit of Justice needed … a host,” Anders said. “I … I offered to help him. We were going to work together, to bring justice to every mage ever ripped away from their families to be sent to the circle.”

“Are you saying … what I think you’re saying?” Hawke asked, now very weary of the man in front of her.

“But he … I … I guess I had too much anger. Once he was inside me, he … changed,” Anders said.

“You’re … possessed,” Bethany gasped. Hawke instinctively took a half step back.

“So this spirit is living inside you still?” Hawke asked.

“It’s … not like that. He’s gone now. He … we merged. Not even the greatest scholar could tell you where I end and where he begins,” Anders said.

“I’ve … I’ve never heard of anything like it,” Bethany said. “Normally when possessed, the demon completely overpowers and consumes the host,” she said turning to Hawke.

“That may be, but … whatever I saw back at the chantry, looked more like a spirit of wrath and fury, than some form of benevolent spirit,” Hawke said.

“Justice is righteous, hard, unmoving. But with my anger, he changed. He is no longer my friend, the spirit of justice. Now he is a force of vengeance, and he has no grasp of mercy,” Anders said.

“That sounds like a rather considerable, and dangerous problem,” Hawke said. “Is there no way to separate him from you?”

“I don’t think so. The only way a spirit has ever been separated from a living host is by its death,” Anders lamented. “This curse is of my own making. All I can do now is hope to control it.”

“Can you bring the spirit out at will?” Bethany asked.

“No. He comes only when I become consumed by my anger, and I lose power over both. It’s a madness, a frenzy. I only find out later, what I might have done,” he explained.

“That does explain a lot,” Hawke said. “Particularly why you hide here in Darktown, and why you work so hard to care for others.”

“I’m so sorry Anders,” Bethany said.

“I had not thought to ever find someone who would look past my … condition,” Anders said.

“Look past … I wouldn’t state it quite like that. You must understand, you said yourself that the spirit is dangerous. That makes me very uneasy. But it’s obvious that you have some control over it. A great deal of control it would seem, that you’re not rampaging in the streets daily. But you also have a very big heart and have only sought to help others,” Hawke replied.

“Your honesty is refreshing, and still far more than I could have hoped for,” Anders said. “I truly have no desire to ever enter the Deep Roads again, but I’m here if you ever need me.”

“You don’t have to join us for the actual expedition,” Hawke said. “But we also need to secure enough gold to pay for the expedition. Which usually means taking a number of dangerous jobs, which means injuries. We could certainly use a healer.”

“I know a little healing magic,” Bethany said. “But it’s nothing like your healing abilities.”

“I could teach you,” Anders said. “And I could always use more help here in the clinic.”

“I would really like that,” Bethany said, and she blushed slightly.

Hawke invited Anders to their weekly meetings, and Anders discussed times that he could spend training Bethany.

Between all the healing they needed, working together on jobs, and Sunshine's little crush, they saw a bit of the Darktown healer.

___________________________________________________

This fanfic is based on the amazing Dragon Age games, specifically focusing on the DA2 game. Thank you EA/BIOWARE for such amazing games & characters!

I’m new to tumblr, so please bear with me as I figure out the best formatting.

[of-the-starlit-night]

DRAGON AGE II: 31 DAY HAWKE CHALLENGE - DAY 31

Day 31: DLC - Mark of the Assassin and Legacy

What did your Hawke think of Tallis?: The whole situation seemed a little fishy to her. She knew that Tallis had to be hiding something because she had never done a job that involved theft and people didn’t come to her for that when there were plenty of thieves guilds to choose from. She was intrigued by Tallis though and wanted to see what she wanted her to help with. After a while Sabine thought Tallis was an amusing companion to have around, but she never fully trusted her.

How did your Hawke enjoy the Orlesian atmosphere and party at the Chateau Haine?: Sabine used to hunt all the time before she arrived in Kirkwall so she enjoys the act of hunting and had never had the opportunity to hunt a wyvern before. She somewhat enjoyed the party, though not because she enjoyed Orlesian atmosphere. Being a proud dog-lord, Sabine had a running commentary going on in her head of all the peculiar Orlesian things going on at the party. Truthfully the parties of the nobility aren’t that terrible, and Sabine does enjoy them on occasion.

What did they think when they found out that Tallis had mislead them, and that she was in fact Qunari?: She had been expecting Tallis to reveal her true motivations in asking for her help, but she hadn’t quite expected that. (Truthfully I feel like Hawke should have known she was part of the Qun considering the symbol on Tallis’ armor, so we will just pretend that it wasn’t there.)

Did they decide to help Tallis, or leave her on her own? Why did they make this choice?: It seemed like Tallis was being honest and truly wanted to help people and Sabine could understand that, she had never been one to let innocent people suffer for the actions of others so she helped Tallis.

How did your Hawke first react to Larius?: Sabine had never seen a ghoul before and was more than a little taken aback, though she kept her reaction off her face, or at least she hoped so.

If your sibling became a Grey Warden, did they become concerned about their fate after seeing Larius?: Bethany was present, but she was a Circle mage. Sabine had no idea that is what happened to Wardens after their Calling.

How did they react to the voice of the 'spirit’ belonging to Malcolm, and finding out that he imprisoned the demons as part of a deal to protect Leandra and baby Hawke?: She had been having a hard time remembering her father’s voice and it was nice to hear it again regardless of how weird it was. She had walked over to Bethany and grabbed her hand and squeezed. They both teared up a little over hearing him again. She wasn’t surprised that Malcolm would have done something extreme to protect his family, she had learned it from him after all, but imprisoning demons for the Wardens would not been something she would have imagined. The fact that he used blood magic was a little shocking to her and Bethany since he had always said how it should be avoided.

In the end did your Hawke side with Larius or Janeka?: Sabine sided with Larius, Corypheus couldn’t be released into the world and it was what her father would have done. Besides she highly doubted that Janeka could control him regardless of what she said. She didn’t like that Larius forced her father to become a blood mage, but she wouldn’t let something personal to get in the way of preventing Corypheus from escaping.

Did the battle with Corypheus change their opinion of anything?: Not particularly. Sabine never thought the Chantry knew the whole story of what happened with the seven magisters and the Golden City or at least didn’t publicize what truly happened if they did.

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